True Ghost Stories 



BY 

HEREWARD CARRINGTON 



Author of "The 'Physical 'Phenomena of Spiritualism,' * "The Coming 

Science, " "Death: its Causes and 'Phenomena, " 

"Death Deferred, " etc. 



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NEW YORK 

THE J.& OGILVIE PUBLISHING COMPANY 

57 ROSE STREET 



*£ 



Copyright, 1915, by 
J. S. OGILVIE PUBLISHING COMPANT 



DEC I 1915 

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MY DEAR FRIENDS 
THE MARSHALLS 



CONTENTS 

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 7 

PREFACE 9 

CHAPTER I 

What is a Ghost? 13 

The Terror of the Dark 14 

What is a Ghost? 18 

Historic Investigations 20 

Death Coincidences 21 

Are They Due to Chance? 24 

The Explanation 2$ 

Experimental Apparitions 27 

Telepathic Hallucinations 32 

Ghosts Which Move Material Objects 37 

Photographs of Ghosts 38 

The "Double" and the Spiritual Body 40 

What Happens at the Moment of Death 43 

How the Soul May Leave the Body 47 

Theories of Haunted Houses 51 

The Clothes of Ghosts 55 

Telepathy from the Dead 57 

The Psychic Atmosphere 59 

Forms Created by Will 60 

Physical Manifestations 62 

Can Haunted Houses be "Cured"? 63 

CHAPTER II 

Phantasms of the Dead — I 65 

A Russian Ghost 65 

Grasped by a Spirit Hand 71 

"I Am Shot!" 74 

"Heave the Lead ! " 75 

The Rescue at Sea 78 

How Ghosts Influence Us 86 

How a Ghost Warned the King 90 

The Stains of Blood 93 

Face to Face 96 

"Julia, Darling!" 98 

The Cut Across the Cheek 99 

The Invisible Hand 100 



6 CONTENTS 

The Apparition of the Radiant Boy 104 

Fisher's Ghost 106 

Harriet Hosmer's Vision 109 

The Apparition of the Murdered Boy 112 

The Ghost in Yellow Calico 116 

CHAPTER III 

More Phantasms of the Dead — II 120 

Compacts to Appear after Death 120 

Lord Brougham's Vision 122 

The Tyrone Ghost 125 

Dead or Alive! 128 

The Scratch on the Cheek 135 

A Ghost in Hampton Court 139 

Half-Past One O'clock 147 

My Own True Ghost Story . . . .155 

CHAPTER IV 

Haunted Houses 163 

The Record of a Haunted House 165 

B House 170 

Willington Mill 174 

The Great Amherst Mystery 176 

Brook House 186 

CHAPTER V 

Ghost Stories of a More Dramatic Nature 194 

Disease-Phantoms 194 

The Tale of a Mummy 198 

Face Slapped by a Ghost 204 

Alone with a Ghost in Church 207 

A Haunted House in France 210 

A Haunted House in Georgia 213 

Shaken by a Ghost 220 

The House and the Brain 221 

APPENDIX A 
Historical Ghosts 230 

APPENDIX B 
The Phantom Armies Seen in France 236 

APPENDIX C 
Bibliography 245 



PUBLISHER'S NOTE. 

HEREWARD CARRINGTON, author of "True Ghost Sto- 
ries," is well known in this country, and in Europe, as a 
prominent scientific writer on psychical and occult sub- 
jects. He has been a member of both the English and 
American Societies of Psychical Research for more than 
15 years; has written over a dozen books on the subject — 
a number of which has been translated into foreign lan- 
guages (such as Japanese and Arabic), and he has lectured 
in London, Par's, Rome, Venice, Milan, Genoa, Turin, etc. 
— before scientific organizations. His writings are well 
known, and have earned him a high place in psychical cir- 
cles. He 's a late member of the Council of the American 
Scientific Society, of the American Geographical Society, 
and of the American Health League. He collaborated in 
the "American Encyclopaedia," "The Standard Dictionary," 
etc. His experience in the investigation of psychical mys- 
teries is unrivalled. He has travelled all over the country 
investigating "cases," spending nights in "haunted houses," 
and accounts of his investigations have appeared in the 
Reports of the various Psychical Societies, and also in his 
own publications. 

In "True Ghost Stories," Mr. Carrington presents a num- 
ber of startling cases of this character; but they are not 
the ordinary "ghost stories" — based on pure fiction, and 
having no foundation in reality. Here we have a well-ar- 
ranged collection of incidents, all thoroughly investigated 
and vouched for, and the testimony obtained first-hand and 
corroborated by others. The chapter on "Haunted Houses" 
is particularly striking. The first chapter deals with the 
interesting question, "What is a Ghost?" and attempts to 
answer this question in the light of the latest scientific 
theories which have been advanced to explain these super- 
natural happenings and visitants. It is a book of absorb- 
ing interest, and cannot fail to grip and hold the attention 
of every reader — no matter whether he be a student of 
these questions, or one merely in search of hair-raising 
anecdotes and stories. He will find them here a-plenty! 



PEEFACE 

The following little book endeavors to bring 
together a number of "ghost stories" of the more 
startling and dramatic type, — but stories, never- 
theless, which seem to be well authenticated ; and 
which have been obtained, in most instances, at 
first hand, from the original witnesses ; and 
often contain corroborative testimony from 
others who also experienced the ghostly phe- 
nomena. Some of these incidents, indeed, rise 
to the dignity of scientific evidence; others are 
less well authenticated cases, — but interesting 
for all that. These have been grouped in various 
Chapters, according to their evidential value. 
Chapters II. and III. contain well-evidenced 
cases, some of which have been taken from the 
Proceedings and Journals of the Society for 
Psychical Research (S. P. E.), or from Phan- 
tasms of the Living, or from other scientific 
books, in which narratives of this character re- 
ceive serious consideration. Chapter V., on the 
contrary, contains a number of incidents which, 
— striking and dramatic as they are, — cannot be 
included in the two earlier Chapters, as present- 
ing real evidence of Ghosts; but are published 
rather as startling and interesting ghost stories. 



10 PREFACE 

Chapter IV., devoted to "Haunted Houses," con- 
tains brief accounts of the most famous Haunted 
Houses, and of the phenomena which have been 
witnessed within them. Appendix A gives a list 
of a few of the important "Historical Ghosts," 
Appendix B describes the "Phantom Armies" 
lately seen by the Allied troops in France — 
while Appendix C lists a number of books of 
Ghost Stories which the interested reader may 
care to peruse. A short Glossary, at the begin- 
ning of the book, explains the meaning of certain 
terms used, — which are not, perhaps, ordinarily 
met with in books of this character. 

In the Introductory Chapter, I have endeav- 
ored to explain, very briefly, the nature and 
character of Ghosts; what they are; and the 
various scientific theories which have been 
brought forward, of late years, to explain 
Ghosts. I hope that this may prove of interest 
to the reader; in case it does not do so, he is 
invited to "skip" directly to Chapter II., which 
begins our account of "True Ghost Stories." 

I wish to express my thanks in this place to 
the Council of the English S. P. E. for special 
permission to quote and to summarize several 
striking cases here reproduced; also to Miss 
Estelle Stead, for permission to utilize several 
cases previously printed at length in Mr. Wm. T. 
Stead's collections of Ghost Stories. H. C. 



GLOSSARY OF TERMS USED 

Agent — The person who, in thought-transfer 
ence experiments, endeavors to impress his 
thoughts upon the "percipient" or "receiver." 

Death-Coincidence — A case in which an ap- 
parition or other ghostly phenomenon has taken 
place, at the moment of the death of the person 
represented by the phantom. 

Ghost — An apparition, a phantom. Some con- 
tend that all ghosts are "subjective" or purely 
mental (hallucinations) ; others that some 
ghosts are "objective" — that is, space-occuping 
entities, which exist apart from the seer, who 
sees them. These points will be found fully dis- 
cussed in this book. 

Hallucination — A mental experience, in 
which a phantom is seen, a voice heard, etc., 
when there is no real external cause for this see- 
ing or hearing. Hallucinations are more com- 
plete than mere "illusions." 

Pact — An agreement, entered into before 
death, between two persons, that, whichever one 
dies first, shall appear to the other one. These 
are here called "Pact Cases." [A Pact may also 
mean an agreement between a necromancer of 



12 GLOSSAKY 

some spirit-intelligence, as in Magic; but the 
word is not used in that sense in this book.] 

Percipient — The receiver of the telepathic or 
other message. The one who experiences the 
phenomenon. 

Phantasm — A phantom; an apparition; a 
"ghost." The word is more inclusive than any 
of the words suggested; and is used by prefer- 
ence, by most psychic students. 

Telepathy — Mind-reading ; thought-transfer- 
ence. 



TEUE GHOST STORIES 



CHAPTER I 

WHAT IS A GHOST? 

Ghosts have been believed in by every nation, 
at every time and at every stage of the world's 
evolution. No matter where we may go, we find 
them stalking through the pages of history;* and 
even in our own cynical and materialistic age, 
we not only find "ghosts" still ; but the evidence 
for their existence is stronger than ever! It is 
nonsense to say that "no sensible person be- 
lieves in ghosts/' because many thousands of 
them do. Why do they believe? Would they be- 
lieve if they had no cause to do so? 

The "terror of the dark/' which we all have 
more or less, from which every child suffers (how 
intensely!) during its early years — a terror 
which is, to a certain extent, shared by animals 
and even insects — does all this signify nothing? 
Those who have looked into this question thor- 
oughly, believe that there is, in every truth, a 



♦See Appendix A. 



14 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

terrible reality justifying this instinctive fear; 
that evil and horrible things lurk about us in the 
still, wierd hours of the night; that there are 
truly "powers and principalities" with which 
we often toy, without knowing or realizing the 
frightful dangers which result from this tamper- 
ing with the unseen world. Yes ; there is a true 
"tyranny of the dark." Phenomena and ghostly 
manifestations take place in darkness which 
would never occur in light; and which cease 
when a light is struclc All ghostly phenomena 
are associated with darkness, and the "wee small 
hours of the night." 

All this is exemplified in the following inter- 
esting narrative, which I may entitle : 

THE TERROR OF THE DARK 

"All my life I have been afraid of the dark," 
said an acquaintance to me the other day, when 
we were discussing psychical matters. "I know 
that it is childish," he continued, "and I ought 
to have outgrown it years ago ; but, as a matter 
of fact, I haven't. After all, isn't there some 
reason for the fears that we all feel, more or less, 
at that time? Doesn't the Bible speak of 'the 
terrors of the Dark;' and are not all animals, 
and even insects, afraid of the dark — so much so 



TEUE GHOST STORIES 15 

that you cannot induce them to enter a dark 
place if they can help it? Light not only enables 
you to see what is around you ; but it acts in a 
certain positive manner over 'the powers of 
darkness/ whatever they are, and prevents their 
operation. All spirit mediums will tell you 
that materialization and manifestations of that 
character cannot take place in the light; it pre- 
vents their occurrence. So, after all, as I said, 
isn't there some reasonable ground for one's fear 
at such times?" 

I said nothing ; but gazed into the fire. After 
all, were not his arguments somewhat impres- 
sive? 

"But," continued my friend, "it is not alto- 
gether because of these speculative reasons that 
I fear the dark ; it is because of a terrible experi- 
ence I once had, and which has left me terror- 
struck, ever since, whenever I am left without 
light even for an instant. I will tell you the 
story, and let you judge for yourself. 

"It was several years ago ; in an old house we 
rented at that time, and from which we removed 
soon after the event I am about to relate. I was 
afraid of the dark, even then, and always left a 
night-light burning by the side of my bed when 
I went to sleep. One night I woke up, feeling 
the springs of the bed on which I was lying 



16 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

vibrate in a peculiar manner, impossible to de- 
scribe. 

"Looking up, I saw, standing by the side of 
my bed, a young man, dressed in rags, having a 
face ghastly white, and showing every indication 
of dissipation. He was regarding me intently. 

"I shall never forget the shock I received on 
beholding that figure; not only because of the 
unexpected appearance; but because of the fact 
that I could perceive the opposite wall and furni- 
ture through the body. I knew at once that I be- 
held a spirit; and my blood ran cold at the 
thought. What I had dreaded all my life was at 
last fulfilled! 

"My next thought was 'I am so glad the night- 
light is burning. What should I do if I were in 
darkness?' As though the form read my 
thoughts, and was intent on torturing me to the 
limit of endurance, it leaned over, and the next 
instant had snuffed the candle! The phantom 
and I were alone in the black darkness ! 

"Words cannot describe my feelings at that in- 
stant. The blood froze in my veins, and the 
tongue clave to the roof of my mouth. I tried to 
speak, but could not. I only held out one hand 
as if to ward off the awful presence by pressing 
it away. 

"The next instant I felt the bed-clothes gently 



TEUE GHOST STORIES 17 

turned down on the further side of the bed, and 
partly pulled off me. The springs of the bed 
were depressed, and I knew that the fearsome 
visitor was crawling into bed! It would lie 
down by my side ; perhaps touch me ; perhaps — 
who could tell? The agony of mind I experi- 
enced in those few moments I shall never forget ! 
My only wonder is that my reason did not give 
way! 

"Then a curious thing happened. Even in the 
state of mind, as I was then, I could perceive 
that the bed was gradually rising up again into 
its normal position. The weight upon it was 
growing less and less. Finally, it was again 
level, and I felt the bed clothes carefully re- 
placed over me. The phantom had withdrawn ! 

"For hours I lay awake, not daring to move. 
After what seemed a century, the first faint 
shafts of light fell across the room, betokening 
the welcome morn. Finally glorious day broke. 
Glorious light ! Hateful darkness ! Cannot you 
see why I hate it so?" 

But, fortunately, this evil and horrible side of 
ghost-land is not universal. 

Ghosts do not always present themselves as so 
formidable and gruesome ! Some of them prove 
helpful; others seem to wish to right a wrong; 
some even seem to have a sense of humor! So 



18 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

there are all sorts of ghosts, just as there are all 
sorts of people ; and the variety is just as great 
in the one case as in the other. 

WHAT IS A GHOST? 

But, after all, what is a ghost? What do we 
mean by this? Where do ghosts live, and how? 
What do they do with themselves? How do they 
manifest? Why do they return? These are 
some of the questions which the average man 
asks himself — unless he totally disbelieves in 
them. 

Most men, it is true, disbelieve in ghosts — un- 
less they have had some experience to convince 
them to the contrary. Yet, after all, why should 
they? As Mr. W. T. Stead once remarked: 

"Real Ghost Stories! How can there be real 
ghost stories when there are no real ghosts? 

"But are there no real ghosts? You may not 
have seen one, but it does not follow that there- 
fore they do not exist. How many of us have 
seen the microbe that kills? There are at least 
as many persons who testify that they have seen 
apparitions as there are men of science who have 
examined the microbe. You and I, who have 
seen neither, must perforce take the testimony 
of others. The evidence for the microbe may be 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 19 

conclusive, the evidence as to apparitions may be 
worthless ; but in both cases it is a case of testi- 
mony, not of personal experience." 

The average conception of a Ghost is probably 
somewhat as follows : That it is a thin, tall fig- 
ure, wrapped in a sheet, walking about the 
house, clanking chains behind it, and scaring out 
of his wits anyone who sees it. According to 
this view, a ghost would be as material and sub- 
stantial a thing as a buzz-saw or a lap-dog, and 
exists just as fully "in space." Such, however, is 
not the conception of the ghost which modern 
science entertains. Many investigators who have 
examined this question closely have come to the 
conclusion that ghosts do actually exist; but 
when we come to the more troublesome question : 
What are they? we are met at once with difficul- 
ties and disagreements. The recent scientific 
theories and explanations of the subject are com- 
plex and subtle; and necessitate a certain pre- 
liminary knowledge on the part of th^ student in 
order for him to understand them. 1 shall ex- 
plain as briefly and clearly as possible exactly 
what these theories are. For the moment, I 
wish to speak, first of all, of the history of 
psychic investigation ; and particularly that por- 
tion of it which deals with apparitions or "ghost 
hunting." 



20 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

HISTORIC INVESTIGATIONS 

Here and there, serious investigators have al 
ways existed. In the sixteenth century Dr 
Glanvil pursued this study with great genius 
and patience; Dr. Johnson also was a firm be 
liever in the reality of "ghosts"; Sir Walter 
Scott and others of his time were investigators * 
the famous Dr. Perrier wrote a treatise on ap 
paritions, and similar investigations have been 
continued up to the present day. The first or- 
ganized and systematic attempt to solve the 
problem, and to find out exactly what ghosts are, 
however, was made by the Society for Psychical 
Research (S. P. R.) in 1882. Practically all the 
investigations which have been carried on since 
then have led to important results. 

Soon after the above mentioned Society was 
founded, and material began to be collected, it 
was found that many cases had to do with haunt- 
ed houses, many with apparitions, but the great- 
er number of them hinged around the one point 
— the coincidence of apparitions with the death 
of the persons represented. An apparition of a 
certain person would be seen in London, let us 
say; and some hours later a telegram would ar- 
rive, conveying the news that this person had 
just been killed. When the time was compared, 



TRUE GHOST STOEIES 21 

it was found to agree exactly; the hour of the 
death and that of the apparition tallying to the 
minute. 

Chance, you say? Perhaps so. One case of 
this character might be explained in such man- 
ner; but could fifty? Could a hundred? It be- 
came a question of statistics — of figures; these 
alone can answer our question. 
_ Before considering these, however, let us give 
a few examples of cases of ''death-coincidences," 
so that the reader may see the character of the 
evidence presented. He may then appreciate the 
value of a great mass of such evidence, When pub- 
lished in extenso. 

DEATH-COINCIDENCES 

The first case we take is from M, Flam- 
marion's book, The Unknown (p. 108), and is as 
follows : 

"My mother . . . who lived in Burgundy, 
heard one Tuesday, between nine and ten o'clock, 
the door of the bedroom open and close violently. 
At the same time, she heard herself called twice 
— 'Lucie, Lucie!' The following Tuesday, she 
heard that her uncle Clementin, who had always 
had a great affection for her, had died that Tues- 
day morning, precisely between nine and ten 
o'clock. . . ." 



22 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

In the following instance, the notification is in 
visual, instead of auditory form, and is taken 
from the Proceedings, S. P. R., Vol. X., pp. 213- 
14: 

"About the 14th of September, 1882, my sister 
and I felt worried and distressed by hearing the 
'death watch'; it lasted a whole day and night. 
We got up earlier than usual the next morning, 
about six o'clock, to finish some birthday pres- 
ents for our mother. As my sister and I were 
working and talking together, I looked up, and 
saw our young acquaintance standing in front 
of me and looking at us. I turned to my sister ; 
she saw nothing. I looked again to where he 
stood; he had vanished. We agreed not to tell 
any one. . . . 

"Some time afterwards we heard that our 
young acquaintance had either committed sui- 
cide or had been killed ; he was found dead in the 
woods, twenty-four hours after landing. On 
looking back to my diary, I found that the 
marks I made in it corresponded to the date of 
his death." 

The following case is reported in Podmore's 
Apparitions and Thought Transference, p. 265 : 

"The first Thursday of April, 1881, while sit- 
ting at tea with my back to the window, and 
talking with my wife in the usual way, I plainly 



TEUE GHOST STOKIES 23 

heard a rap at the window, and, looking round, I 
said to my wife, Why, there's my grandmother/ 
and went to the door, but could not see anyone ; 
and still feeling sure it was my grandmother, 
and, knowing that, though eighty-three years of 
age, she was very active and fond of a joke, I 
went round the house, but could not see any- 
one. My wife did not hear it. On the follow- 
ing Saturday, I had news that my grandmother 
died in Yorkshire about half an hour before the 
time I heard the rapping. The last time I saw 
her alive I promised, if well, I would attend 
her funeral; that was some two years before. I 
was in good health and had no trouble; age, 
twenty-six years. I did not know that my grand- 
mother was ill. 

"Bev. Matthew Frost." 

Mrs. Fro^t writes : 

"I beg to certify that I perfectly remember all 
the circumstances my husband has named, but I 
heard and saw nothing myself." 

The following case is from Phantasms of the 
Living, Vol. II., p. 50 : 

"On February 26th, 1850, I was awake, for I 
was to go to my sister-in-law, and visiting was 
then an event for me. About two o'clock in the 
morning my brother walked into our room (my 



24 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

sister's) and stood beside my bed. I called to 
her, 'Here is .' He was at the time quar- 
tered at Paisley, and a mail-car from Belfast 
passed about that hour not more than a mile 
from our village. . . . He looked down 
on us most lovingly, and kindly, and waved his 
hand, and he was gone ! I recollect it all as if it 
were only last night it occurred, and my feeling 
of astonishment, not at his coming into the room 
at all, but where he could have gone. At that 
very hour he died." 

Mr. Gurney writes : 

"We have confirmed the date of death in the 
Army List, and find from a newspaper notice 
that the death took place in the early morning, 
and was extremely sudden." 

Cases such as the above could be multiplied 
into the hundreds ; but it is not necessary. For 
our present purposes, the above samples will at 
least serve to show the character of these "death- 
coincidences/' and how accurate and how nu- 
merous they often are. 

AKE THEY DUE TO CHANCE? 

The cases of "death-coincidences" came in so 
thick and so fast that, some time after its foun- 
dation, the Society for Psychical Research pub- 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 25 

lished an enormous book in two volumes, called 
"Phantasms of the Living/' which contained 
some 702 cases of this character. The possibility 
of "chance coincidence" was very carefully 
worked out; and it was ascertained that the 
number of collected cases was many thousand 
times more numerous than chance alone could 
be supposed to account for. A "connection" of 
some sort was thought to be proved. 

But objections at once began to be heard ! "In 
order to prove your point you must collect a 
greater number of cases than this ; you must get 
more facts before we can consider your point 
proved !" 

So the investigators again set to work, and 
carried on a far more extensive investigation, in 
several countries, covering a period of several 
years. The results were the same. After collect- 
ing some 30,000 cases, and calculating the num- 
ber of death-coincidences contained in this num- 
ber, it was again proved, and most conclusively, 
that the number of coincidences was far more 
numerous than could be accounted for by any 
theory of chance. Professor Sidgwick's Com- 
mittee, therefore, signed the following joint 
statement, at the conclusion of their lengthy Re- 
port: 

"Between deaths and apparitions of the dying 



26 TEUE GHOST STOEIES 

person a connection exists which is not due to 
chance alone. This we hold as a proved 

fact " 

These are weighty words. They represent an 
important forward step in our investigation of 
these involved and complex questions. Some- 
thing takes place at death, which serves to unite, 
in some sort of spiritual bond, the dying and the 
still living relatives or friends. What is this 
connection? In what may it be supposed to 
consist? 

THE EXPLANATION 

For an explanation, we must begin by going 
back to experimental thought-transference. We 
know that it is possible, under certain condi- 
tions, for one person to affect another, otherwise 
than through the regular avenues of the five 
senses. This "telepathic" action between mind 
and mind is now pretty well known, and oper- 
ates more or less throughout life. By means of 
this, it is occasionally possible for one person to 
impress a scene or a picture upon the mind of 
another, so that the other shall see before him, 
as it were, in space, a vivid mental picture of the 
scene in the other's mind. 

This being so, it seems plausible to suppose 



TKUE GHOST STORIES 27 

that it might be possible to convey the impres- 
sion or picture of one's self to another — since 
this may be supposed to be the most precise and 
best-known picture we have. Would it not be 
possible to think of one's own appearance so 
intensely as to cause a mental representation of 
it to appear before another person, distant some 
miles away? 

Apparently this has been done, many times. 
"Experimental apparitions" of this character 
have frequently been induced; accounts of a few 
of which will be found in this volume. The pic- 
ture is mental, in such a case; it is an imagin- 
ative creation; it is a hallucination, — although 
it was caused or created by another, distant 
mind. It was, it is true, a hallucination ; but as 
it was induced by telepathy, we have for such 
apparitions the name of "telepathic hallucina- 
tions." It is this theory of "telepathic halluci- 
nations" which is invoked to explain many of 
these cases of death-coincidences, or apparitions 
of the dying. 

EXPEEIMENTAL APPARITIONS 

The following types of "experimental appari- 
tions" are good examples of the ability to induce 
a phantasmal form at a distance by "willing" to 



28 TKUE GHOST STORIES 

do so. As to the nature of this figure : there is 
as yet no unanimity of opinion — some authori- 
ties preferring to believe that such cases repre- 
sent merely an extension of the power of 
thought-transference, known to us; others, on 
the contrary, contending that such cases prove 
the existence and travelling powers of the "as- 
tral" or "spiritual body." Of this, however, 
more later. 

Here is a case of this nature, experienced by 
the English investigator, the Rev. William 
Stainton Moses, who corroborates the following 
account, which is furnished by the agent : — 

"One evening I resolved to appear to Z., at 
some miles' distance. I did not inform him be- 
forehand of the intended experiment, but retired 
to rest shortly before midnight, my thoughts in- 
tently fixed on Z., with whose rooms and sur- 
roundings I was quite unacquainted. I soon fell 
asleep, and woke next morning unconscious of 
anything having taken place. On seeing Z. a 
few days afterwards, I inquired : /Did anything 
happen at your rooms on Saturday night?' 
'Yes,' he replied, <a great deal happened. I had 
been sitting over the fire with M., smoking and 
chatting. About 12:30 he rose to leave, and I 
let him out myself. I returned to the fire to fin- 
ish my pipe, when I saw you sitting in the chair 



TRUE TOST STORIES 29 

just vacated bv Ijim. I looked intently at you, 
and then took up a newspaper to assure myself 
that I was not dreaming ; but on laying it down 
I saw you still there. While I gazed, without 
speaking, you faded away.' " 

In the case which follows, the initials only are 
used; but the writer of the account was known 
to the officers of the S. P. R., who vouched for 
jthe general trustworthiness of the writer : 

"On a certain Sunday evening in November, 
1881, having been reading of the great power 
which the human will is capable of exercising, I 
determined, with the whole force of my being, 
that I would be present in spirit in the front 
bedroom of the second floor of a house situated 
at 22 Hogarth Road, Kensington, in which room 
slept two young ladies of my acquaintance, — 
namely, Miss L. S. V. and Miss E. C. V., aged 
respectively twenty-five and eleven years. I was 
living at the time at 23 Kildare Gardens, at a 
distance of about three miles from Hogarth 
Road, and I had not mentioned in any way my 
intention of trying this experiment to either of 
the above ladies, for the simple reason that it 
was only on retiring to rest upon this Sunday 
night that I made up my mind to do so. The 
time at which I determined to be there was one 
o'clock in the morning; and I had a strong in- 



30 TKUE GHOST STORIES 

tention of making my presence perceptible. On 
the following Thursday I went to see the ladies 
in question, and, in the course of my conversa- 
tion (without any allusion to the subject on my 
part), the elder one told me that on the previous 
Saturday night she had been much terrified by 
perceiving me standing by her bedside, and that 
she screamed when the apparition advanced to- 
wards her, and awoke her little sister, who also 
saw me. 

"I asked her if she was awake at the time, and 
she replied most decidedly in the affirmative; 
and, upon my inquiring the time of the occur- 
rence, she replied, 'About one o'clock in the 
morning/ 

"This lady at my request wrote down a state- 
ment of the event, and signed it. . . ." 

Mr. Gurney ( one of the authors of Phantasms 
of the Living) became deeply interested in these 
experiments, and requested Mr. B. to notify him 
in advance on the next occasion when he pro- 
posed to make his presence known in this 
strange manner. Accordingly, March 22d, 1884, 
he received the following letter: 

"Dear Mr. Gurney: — I am going to try the 
experiment to-night of making my presence per- 
ceptible at 44 Morland Square, at 12 P. M. I 



TEUE GHOST STORIES 31 

will let you know the result in a few days. 
Yours very sincerely, "S. H. B." 

The next letter, which was written on April 
3, contained the following statement, prepared 
by the recipient, Miss L. S. Verity : 

"On Saturday night, March 22, 1884, at about 
midnight, I had a distinct impression that Mr. 
S. H. B. was present in my room, and I dis- 
tinctly saw him, being quite awake. He came 
toward me and stroked my hair. I voluntarily 
gave him this information when he called to see 
me on Wednesday, April 2, telling him the time 
and the circumstances of the apparition with- 
out any suggestion on his part. The appear- 
ance in my room was most vivid and quite un- 
mistakable." 

Miss A. S. Verity also furnishes this corrob- 
orative statement: 

"I remember my sister telling me that she had 
seen S. H. B. and that he touched her hair, be- 
fore he came to see us on April 2." 

The agent's statement of the affair is as fol- 
lows: 

"On Saturday, March 22, I determined to 
make my presence perceptible to Miss V. at 44 
Morland Square, Notting Hill, at twelve mid- 
night ; and as I had previously arranged with 



32 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

Mr. Gurney that I should post him a letter of 
the evening on which I tried my next experiment 
(stating the time and other particulars) I sent 
him a note to acquaint him with the above facts. 
About ten days afterwards I called upon Miss 
V., and she voluntarily told me that on March 
22, at twelve o'clock, midnight, she had seen me 
so vividly in her room (whilst wide awake) 
that her nerves had been much shaken, and she 
had been obliged to send for a doctor in the 
morning." 

These cases will at least prove the possibility 
of such a thing as "experimental apparitions," 
and, explain them as we may, they are, at all 
events, most interesting and significant. They 
prove the reality of "telepathic phantasms" — of 
apparitions produced in another by the power 
of mind. This is, at least, the modern concep- 
tion of the facts. 

TELEPATHIC HALLUCINATIONS 

How may the theory be said to work? How 
can a telepathic impulse from a distant mind 
cause a picture to appear in space, as it were, 
before the recipient? Here is the last word of 
modern science in this direction; here is the 
theory which has been advanced to explain puz- 
zling cases of this character. 



TEUE GHOST STORIES 33 

When we look at and see an object, the sight- 
centers of the brain are roused into activity; 
unless they are so aroused, we see nothing, and 
whenever they are so aroused, no matter from 
what cause, we have the sensation of sight. We 
see. 

But we get no further than this; we do not 
reason about the thing seen, or analyze ; or think 
to ourselves, "this is a red apple; I like red ap- 
ples/' etc. No, we only see or perceive the ob- 
ject. All the reasoning about the object takes 
place in the higher thought-centres of the brain. 
A diagram will, perhaps, help to make all this 
clear. 

When light-waves coming 
from the eye, A, travel along 
the optic nerves, and excite 
into activity the sight-centers- 
— at B — we have the sensa- 
tion of sight, as before said. 
Nerve currents then travel 
up the nerves, going from B to C, and in these 
higher centers, they are associated and analyzed, 
and we then "reflect" upon the thing seen, etc. 
This is the normal process of sight. 

Now, if the eye, or the optic nerves, or the 
sight-centers themselves become diseased, we 
still have the sensation of seeing, though there 




34 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

is no material object there; we have ordinary 
hallucinations of all kinds — delirium tremens, 
etc. If the sight-centers are stimulated as much 
as they would be by the incoming nerve stimuli 
from the eye, we have "full-blown hallucina- 
tions." 

Now, it is obvious that one method of stimu- 
lating the sight-centers into activity is for a 
nervous current to come downwards, along the 
nerves running from C to B. It is probable 
that something of this sort takes place when we 
experience "memory pictures." If you shut your 
eyes and picture the face of some dear friend, 
you will be able to see it before you more or 
less clearly. The higher psychical centers of the 
brain have excited the sight-centers into a cer- 
tain activity; and these have given us the sen- 
sation of dim, inward sight. If the stimulus 
were stronger, we should have cases of intense 
"visualization" ; such as the figures which occur 
in the crystal ball, etc. — they being doubtless 
produced in this manner. 

Although the "sluice-gates," so to speak, run- 
ning from C to B are, therefore, always open 
slightly; they are never open wide; it is not 
natural for them to be so. But if, under any 
great stress, thought or emotion, the downward 
nervous current were as strong as that ordi- 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 35 

narily running from A to B; then we should 
appear to see as clearly; the object would ap- 
pear just as solid and real and outstanding to 
us as any other entity. We should experience 
a "full-blown hallucination.'' 

All this being so, it is almost natural to sup- 
pose that one method by which these psychical 
sluice-gates could be more widely opened would 
be under the impact of a telepathic impulse. If 
we assume that this in some manner arouses 
into instantaneous and great activity the higher 
psychical centers (C), these would very proba- 
bly communicate this impulse to B — down- 
wards, along the nerve-tracts connecting the two 
(or to the hearing centers, when we should ex- 
perience an auditory hallucination, and hear our 
name spoken, etc.). In this way we could ac- 
count for a telepathic hallucination, originat- 
ing in this manner; and it is surely to be sup- 
posed that, at the moment of death, some pecu- 
liar quickening of the mental and spiritual life 
takes place — the peculiar flashes of memory by 
those drowning, etc., seeming to show this. 

So, then, we arrive at a sort of explanation of 
many of these cases of apparitions, occurring 
at the moment of death; for we have shown 
them to be "telepathic hallucinations." This is 
also the correct explanation, doubtless, for many 



36 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

cases in which apparitions of the living have 
been seen — in which a phantasm of a living 
person has appeared to another, during sleep, or 
in hypnotic trance, etc. 

But how about those ghosts which appear 
some time after death? They, at least, cannot 
be explained by any such theory. What has 
been said by way of explanation of these cases? 

It will be remembered that telepathy is the 
basis of the explanation thus far. Let us ex- 
tend this. We have only to suppose that the 
spirit of man survives the shock of death, and 
that it can continue to exert its powers and ca- 
pacities also. For, if a living mind can influence 
the living by telepathy; why not a "dead" one? 
Why should not the surviving spirit of man 
continue to influence us, by telepathy? If they 
could, we should still have cases of telepathic 
hallucinations — induced from the mind of a dis- 
carnate, not an incarnate, spirit. The "ghost" 
might still be a telepathic hallucination. And 
if several persons saw the figure at once, we 
should, on this theory, have a case of collective 
hallucination — in which one mind affected all 
the rest equally and simultaneously. 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 37 



GHOSTS WHICH MOTE MATERIAL OBJECTS 

Such is the theory — rather far-fetched, it is 
true; but certainly the most rational and com- 
mon-sense so far advanced to explain many of 
the facts. It is probable, however, that this ex- 
planation will not serve to explain all of them, 
^hus, in those cases where the apparition moved 
a material object, opened a door, etc., such a 
theory would have to be abandoned, for the 
simple reason that a mental concept, an hallu- 
cination, cannot open doors and move objects! 
There must be an outstanding, material entity 
to effect this. There must be a real ghost. And 
in those cases where the apparition has been 
seen by several persons at once, or even photo- 
graphed, it seems more reasonable to suppose 
that a material, space-occupying body was pres- 
ent rather than to assume that the various wit- 
nesses or the camera were hallucinated. 

In the following cases, for example, the appa- 
rition performs a definite physical action — 
snuffs a candle with its fingers, an action 
which a pure hallucination could hardly be sup- 
posed to perform. The account is by the Rev. 
D. W. G. Gwynne, M.I., and is printed in Phan- 
tasms of the Living, Vol. II., pp. 202-3. After 



38 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

telling of certain minor phenomena, he pro- 
ceeds : 

"I now come to the mutual experience of 
something that is as fresh in its impression as if 
it were the occurrence of yesterday. During the 
night I became aware of a draped figure passing 
across the foot of the bed towards the fireplace. 
I had the impression that the arm was raised, 
pointing with the hand towards the mantle- 
piece, on which a night-light was burning. Mrs. 
Gwynne at this moment seized my arm, and the 
light was extinguished. Notwithstanding, I dis- 
tinctly saw the figure returning towards the 
door, and being under the impression that one 
of our servants had found her way into the 
room, I leaped out of bed to intercept the in- 
truder, but found, and saw, nothing. . . . " 

[Mrs. Gwynne confirms the story, adding, "I 
distinctly saw the hand of the phantom placed 
over the night-light, which was at once extin- 
guished."] 

PHOTOGRAPHS OF GHOSTS 

Again, it is claimed that ghosts have some- 
times been photographed, though very rarely. 
In a number of cases, attempts have been made 
to photograph ghosts seen in haunted-houses ; 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 39 

but, though the figures have been seen by all 
present, the photographic plate has failed to re- 
cord any impression of the phantom. In other 
cases, on the contrary, definite impressions have 
been obtained; and, though there is doubtless 
much fraud among professional mediums, who 
claim to produce "spirit photographs/' there are 
many cases on record in which no professional 
medium was employed, and in which faces were 
certainly seen upon the developed plate. Exper- 
iments have also been made in photographing 
the body at the moment of death; to see if any 
impression could be made upon the plate — by 
the soul, in its passage from the body; and, 
though many of these have proved negative, Dr. 
Baraduc, of Paris, has obtained a number of 
photographs which have never been explained. 
Again, numerous researches in the region of so- 
called "thought photography' ' have given some 
basis for the belief that thought may be, under 
certain conditions, photographed — as for exam- 
ple, in the experiments of Dr. Ochorowicz and 
others. It may be said, therefore, that some 
progress is being made in this direction by psy- 
chic investigators (particularly by the French 
observers, who are far ahead of the rest of the 
world in these branches of psychic investiga- 
tion), and that, with increased sensitiveness of 



40 TEUE GHOST STOKIES 

film and plate, and greater perfection of lens 
and camera, it is to be hoped that the time is not 
far distant when it will be possible to photo- 
graph the unseen just as we photograph living 
persons. 

There are "ghosts," therefore, which are hal- 
lucinations ; and there are ghosts which are gen- 
uine phantasms — the "real article." It becomes 
a question, in each instance, of sifting the evi- 
dence ; finding out which they are. Yet, if there 
are real, objective, outstanding ghosts, how can 
we explain them? In what do they consist? In 
short, we are back to our original question: 
What are ghosts? 

THE "DOUBLE/" AND THE SPIRITUAL BODY 

Before we can answer this question satisfac- 
torily, we must consider one or two preliminary 
questions. First of all, we must speak of the 
"double" — the astral or spiritual or ethi« body, 
which resides in man, as well as his physical 
body.* 

St. Paul constantly emphasized the fact that 
man has a material body and a "spiritual body." 
This inner body is the exact shape of the physi- 



*Theosophists distinguish between all these various bod- 
ies; psychic students strive, for the most part, only to 
prove the objective existence of any one of them. 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 41 

cal body — its counterpart, its double. In life, 
under ordinary conditions, the two are insepara- 
ble ; but at death, the severance takes place and 
man continues to live on in this etheric envel- 
ope. This inner body has been studied very 
carefully by students of the occult; and a good 
deal is now known about it — its comings and 
goings, its composition, and the method of its 
.departure at death. For our present purposes, 
however, it is enough to say that such a body 
exists, and that it is the vehicle man continues 
to use and manipulate, after his death and his 
departure from this plane. 

It so happens that, under certain peculiar 
conditions, the inner body of man is capable of 
being detached or separated from the physical 
body. This usually occurs in trance, sleep, hyp- 
notic and mesmeric states, etc. ; or may be per- 
formed "experimentally," by some who have cul- 
tivated this power in themselves. When this 
body goes on such "excursions" — leaving the 
physical body practically dead, to all appear- 
ances — it may be seen by those in its immediate 
vicinity, just as a material body would be — if 
they are sufficiently sensitive or receptive. 

The following interesting case, (recorded in 
Phantasms of the Living, Vol. I, pp. 225-26) is 
a good example of the apparent traveling of the 



42 TEUE GHOST STORIES 

body to another place, and the perception of that 
body by a second person, who happens to be 
there. Two individuals, at all events, shared in 
the experience, which is otherwise hard to ac- 
count for. The case is recorded by the Rev. P. 
H. Newnham, and is as follows: 

"In March, 1854, I was up at Oxford, keeping 
my last term, in lodgings. I was subject to vio- 
lent neuralgic headaches, which always culmin- 
ated in sleep. One evening, about 8 p.m., I had 
an unusually violent one; when it became un- 
endurable, about 9 p.m., I went into my bed- 
room, and flung myself, without undressing, on 
the bed, and soon fell asleep. 

"I then had a singularly clear and vivid 
dream, all the incidents of which are as clear in 
my memory as ever. I dreamed that I was 
stopping with the family of a lady who subse- 
quently became my wife. All the younger ones 
had gone to bed, and I stopped chatting to the 
father and mother, standing up by the fireplace. 
Presently I bade them good-night, took my can- 
dle, and went off to bed. On arriving in the 
hall, I perceived that my fiancee had been de- 
tained downstairs, and was only then near the 
top of the staircase. I rushed upstairs, over- 
took her on the top step, and passed my two 
arms around her waist, under her arms, from 



TEUE GHOST STORIES 43 

behind. Although I was carrying my candle in 
the left hand, when I ran upstairs, this did not, 
in my dream, interfere with this gesture. 

"On this I woke, and the clock in the house 
struck ten almost immediately afterwards. 

"So strong was the impression of the dream 
that I wrote a detailed account of it the next 
morning to my fiancee. 

- "Crossing my letter, not in answer to it, I re- 
ceived a letter from the lady in question : Were 
you thinking about me very specially last night, 
just about ten o'clock? For, as I was going up- 
stairs to bed, I distinctly heard your footsteps 
on the stairs, and felt you put your arms round 
my waist.' " 

[Mrs. Newnham wrote a confirmation of this, 
account, which was also published.] 

WHAT HAPPENS AT THE MOMENT OF DEATH 

In all these cases, of course, the psychic body 
of the subject returns and re-animates the physi- 
cal body; for if it did not do so, death would 
take place. When death does actually take 
place, this is what occurs; and psychics and 
clairvoyants assert that they are able to see and 
follow this process perfectly ; and many of them 
have described exactly what takes place at the 



44 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

moment of death. The following description, 
for example, given by Andrew Jackson Davis, is 
taken from his Death, and the After Life, pp. 
15-16, and is as follows: 

"Suppose the person is now dying. It is to 
be a rapid death. The feet first grow cold. The 
clairvoyant sees over the head what may be 
called a magnetic halo — an etherial emanation, 
in appearance golden, and throbbing as though 
conscious. The body is now cold up to the knees 
and elbows, and the emanation has ascended 
higher in the air. The legs are cold to the hips 
and the arms to the shoulders; and the emana- 
tion, though it has not risen higher in the room, 
is more expanded. The death-coldness steals 
over the breast and round on either side, and the 
emanation has attained a higher position nearer 
the ceiling. The person has ceased to breathe, 
the pulse is still, and the emanation is elongated 
and fashioned in the outline of a human form. 
Beneath, it is connected with the brain. The 
head of the person is internally throbbing — a 
slow, deep throb — not painful but like the beat 
of the sea. Hence the thinking faculties are 
rational, while nearly every part of the person is 
dead. Owing to the brain's momentum, I have 
seen a dying person, even at the last feeble pulse- 
beat, rouse impulsively and rise up in bed to 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 45 

converse with a friend, but the next instant he 
was gone — his brain being the last to yield up 
the life principle. 

"The golden emanation, which extends up 
midway to the ceiling, is connected to the brain 
by a very fine life-thread. Now the body of the 
emanation ascends. Then appears something 
white and shining, like a human head; next, in 
a very few moments, a faint outline of the face 
divine, then the fair neck and beautiful should- 
ers; then, in rapid succession, come all parts of 
the new body down to the feet — a bright, shining 
image, a little smaller than its physical body, but 
a perfect prototype or reproduction in all except 
its disfigurements. The fine life-thread contin- 
ues attached to the old brain. The next thing is 
the withdrawal of the electric principle. When 
this thread snaps the spiritual body is free, and 
prepared to accompany its guardians to the 
Summer-Land. Yes, there is a spiritual body ; it 
is sown in dishonor and raised in brightness." 

It is doubtless this spiritual body which is the 
true cause of many apparitions — of many ghost 
stories. It is this body which is seen by the seer 
or percipient in many a ghost story; it is this 
body which moves objects and touches the indi- 
vidual who sees the ghost. This body is de- 
tached at death, as we have seen, and afterwards 



46 TEUE GHOST STOKIES 

is free to rove at its own free will. Apparitions 
of the dead might thus be accounted for; while 
all those cases of apparitions of the dying which 
are with difficulty explained as due to pure tele- 
pathy might also thus find their explanation. 
The spiritual body, freed at that moment, would 
manifest its presence to the distant percipient as 
it did after death. So far so good, but how 
about apparitions of the living? How explain 
those cases in which the apparition of a living 
person has been seen, when the spiritual body 
is supposedly safely attached to the physical 
body? 

Many of them are doubtless cases of telepa- 
thy ; but in those cases which seem to demand 
the presence of a body of some sort, we may sup- 
pose that the spiritual body may become de- 
tached, at times, under certain peculiar condi- 
tions, from the material body which it inhabits 
and animates, and can then manifest independ- 
ently at a distance. The following cases are il- 
lustrative, apparently, of this fact ; showing us 
that the "etheric body" can manifest on occa- 
sion at will at a distance from the physical 
body. 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 47 



HOW THE SOUL MAY LEAVE THE BODY 

" . . . I put out the light and returned, but 
no sooner had I done this than ... I could 
feel a creeping sensation moving up my legs. I 
got up and lit the gas and went back to bed; 
with pillows arranged in such a way as to make 
me comfortable. In a comparatively short time, 
all circulation ceased in my legs, and they were 
as cold as those of the dead. The creeping sen- 
sation began in the lower part of the body, and 
that also became cold. . . . There was no sen- 
sation of pain or even of physical discomfort. I 
would pinch my legs with my thumb and finger, 
and there was no feeling or no indication of 
blood whatever. I might as well have pinched a 
piece of rubber so far as the sensation produced 
was concerned. As the movement continued up- 
ward, all at once there came a flashing of lights 
in my eyes and a ringing in my ears, and it 
seemed for an instant as though I had become 
unconscious. When I came out of this state, I 
seemed to be walking in the air. No words can 
describe the exhilaration and freedom that I ex- 
perienced. At no time in my life had my mind 
been so clear and so free. Just then I thought 
of a friend who was more than a thousand miles 



48 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

distant. Then I seemed to be traveling with 
great rapidity through the atmosphere about me. 
Everything was light and yet it was not the light 
of the day or the sun, but, I might say, a pe- 
culiar light of its own, such as I have never 
known. It could not have been a minute after 
that I thought of my friends, before I was con- 
scious of standing in a room where the gas-jets 
were turned up, and my friend was standing 
with his back toward me, but, suddenly turning 
and seeing me, said: 'What in the world are 
you doing here? I thought you were in Florida' 
— and he started to come toward me. While I 
heard the words distinctly, I was unable to an- 
swer. An instant later I was gone; and the 
consciousness of the memorable things that 
transpired that memorable night has never been 
forgotten. I seemed to leave the earth, and 
everything pertaining to it, and enter a condi- 
tion of life of which it is absolutely impossible 
to give here any thought I had concerning it, 
because there was no correspondence to any- 
thing I had ever seen or heard or known of in 
any way. The wonder and the joy of it was un- 
speakable; and I can readily understand now 
what Paul meant when he said 'I knew a man, 
whether in the body or out of it I know not, 
who was caught up to the third heaven, and saw 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 49 

things which it is not possible (lawful) to ut- 
ter.' 

"In this latter experience there was neither 
consciousness of time nor of space; in fact, it 
can be described more as a consciousness of elas- 
tic feeling than anything else. It came to me 
after a time that I could stay there if I so de- 
sired, but with that thought came also the con- 
sciousness of the friends on earth and the duties 
there required of me. The desire to stay was 
intense, but in my mind I clearly reasoned over 
it — whether I should gratify my desire or re- 
turn to my work on earth. Four times my 
thought and reason told me that my duties re- 
quired me to return, but I was so dissatisfied 
with each conclusion that I finally said : 'Now 
I will think and reason this matter out once 
more, and whatever conclusion I reach I will 
abide by.' I reached the same conclusion, and 
had not much more than reached it when I be- 
came conscious of being in a room and looking 
down on a body propped up in bed, which I rec- 
ognized as my own ! I cannot tell what strange 
feelings came over me. This body, to all in- 
tents and purposes, looked to be dead. There 
was no indication of life about it, and yet here 
I was apart from the body, with my mind per- 
fectly clear and alert, and the consciousness of 



50 TEUE GHOST STOKIES 

another body to which matter of any kind of- 
fered no resistance. 

" After what might have been a minute or 
two, looking at the body, I began to try and 
control it, and in a very short time all sense of 
separation from the physical body ceased, and I 
was only conscious of a directed effort toward 
its use. After what seemed to be quite a long 
time, I was able to move, got up from the bed, 
dressed myself, and went down to breakfast. . . 

"I may add that the friend referred to as hav- 
ing been seen by me that night was also dis- 
tinctly conscious of my presence and made the 
exclamation mentioned. We both wrote the 
next day, relating the experience of the night, 
and the letters corroborating the incident 
crossed in the post." 

Such strange doings certainly tend to prove 
that the human spirit can leave its body and 
rove abroad, at times ; and if this is the case, it 
shows us that our body is far more detachable 
than we usually suppose ; and hence that it can 
probably continue to exist after the death of 
the physical body, when it is detached alto- 
gether. Once this is proved, all objection to 
the reality and existence of "objective" ghosts 
will have been done away with. 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 51 

THEORIES OF HAUNTED HOUSES 

If we grant that certain houses may be 
"haunted," in the sense that they may be the 
centers of influences and forces as yet unseen 
and unknown, the question is: How explain 
such cases? What hypotheses can we advance 
to explain cases of haunted houses, which will 
recognize the reality of the phantom witnessed 
therein, and attempt to explain them as ration- 
ally as possible? Four main theories have been 
advanced by way of explanation, which I shall 
briefly outline. 

( 1 ) . There is the theory that the figures seen 
in houses of this nature are genuine, outstand- 
ing entities — real beings, which are just as real, 
though less solid and tangible, as any of the 
living inhabitants of the house. This is, of 
course, the popular conception of the ghosts seen 
in haunted houses, and it must be admitted that 
such a theory covers and explains the facts more 
completely and fully than any other. There 
are also many facts telling in its favor. For 
instance, wiien two persons see a figure from 
different angles or viewpoints ; and one describes 
it in profile, while the other describes it as pre- 
senting a full face likeness; and if this is the 
angle in each case from which a real figure 



52 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

would naturally be seen, this surely seems to 
indicate that a solid form of some sort was 
present. 

Again, when three or four or more people see 
a figure at the same time, it is surely a strain 
upon our credulity to believe that a number of 
persons were similarly "hallucinated" at pre- 
cisely the same time and in the same manner; 
and easier to believe that they all saw a figure 
at the same time, though in differing degrees of 
vividness and detail. 

Thirdly, we have the evidence from photogra- 
phy. In some instances, these figures have been 
photographed; and though there is doubtless 
much fraud in this connection, there is evidence 
that, in certain cases, genuine photographs of 
this nature have been taken. This is discussed 
elsewhere in this volume, however. 

Fourthly, we have the behavior of animals, in 
haunted houses. They often appear to see fig- 
ures visible or invisible to others present at the 
time — bark at them, rub against them, stare at 
them, act as though terrified at what they see, 
etc. This will be noticed in many of the stories ; 
and can be explained only with difficulty if we 
are to believe that the figures seen are merely 
hallucinations. 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 53 

THE GHOSTS OF ANIMALS- ETC. 

I have elsewhere spoken of the apparent abil- 
ity of animals to see phantasmal forms and fig- 
ures. The reverse of this is also true. Ghosts 
of animals have been seen — spectral dogs, cats, 
horses as well as human beings. These appari- 
tions are very perplexing, and raise the ques- 
tion of the immortality of animals — a very vexed 
question, which has given rise to much discus- 
sion. Mr. H. Rider Haggard records the case 
of his own dog, whose apparition he saw at the 
very moment that the dog was killed by an ex- 
press train some miles away. Did the animal 
succeed in affecting his master by telepathy? If 
not, why the coincidence? I myself have re- 
corded a case in which a (real) cat spat at a 
phantom dog, seen independently by a clairvoy- 
ant, who had described it a few moments before 
to a group of spectators. Such cases are very 
interesting. They tend to prove that dogs, cats 
horses and other animals also survive death — a 
conclusion which is certainly the most humane 
and logical to many minds. 

In addition to these animal apparitions, there 
are also grotesque, horrible, monstrous and un- 
definable ghosts. One or two cases of this char- 
acter are described in this book. Sometimes the 



54 TEUE GHOST STORIES 

"seer" sees something awful, but cannot de- 
scribe in words what it is. Many of the phan- 
toms of the imaginative type are of this char- 
acter. Again, there are grave-yard ghosts; ban- 
shees, gnomes, elementals, pixies, fairies, brown- 
ies, nature-spirits, hobgoblins, sylphs, salaman- 
ders, dragons, vampires, wraiths, corpse-candles, 
and many other awful beings which have been 
described from time to time in the past. We 
need not consider these in a book of this char- 
acter, however. But, to return to our argument 
for the objective reality of "ghosts." 

Fifthly, we have those cases in which the ap- 
parition has produced a physical effect in the 
material world — snuffed a light, opened a door, 
pulled back the bed-curtains, etc. A hallucina- 
tory figure could not do this. It has been sug- 
gested that all this is only a part of the halluci- 
nation, but when the thing is found to have been 
moved in reality, we must explain this some- 
how; for otherwise how did it change its place? 

Sixthly, we have cases in which the same ap- 
parition has been seen by several separate and 
independent persons in the same room or house, 
and afterwards they have recognized the features 
of this person in a photograph shown them — the 
photograph of the person supposed to haunt 
that particular house. If we were to believe 



TKUE GHOST STORIES 55 

that a simple hallucination caused the figure, 
how account for this identification? Surely the 
theory is far-fetched! 

For all these reasons, therefore, and others it 
would be possible to mention, there is much to 
be said in favor of this theory of haunted houses ; 
the theory which says that the figures seen are 
real, semi-material entities. 

THE CLOTHES OF GHOSTS 

(2). The second view, opposed to that men- 
tioned above, is this : Someone living in a house 
has experienced a hallucination, and then seen 
the same thing over and over again, by reason of 
auto-suggestion; or, if he moves away, and an- 
other tenant takes the house in turn, the 
thoughts of this second tenant are influenced, 
through thought-transference, by the first ten- 
ant, who broods and thinks over his experiences 
in the "haunted house/' wonders whether the 
people now living in it are experiencing phenom- 
ena, etc. In this way, the minds of those living 
in the house are constantly influenced by 
thought-transference by living minds ; and hallu- 
cinatory figures are produced in them, just as 
the picture of a playing card is induced in ex- 
perimental thought-transference. 



56 TEUE GHOST STORIES 

There are two things to be said in favor of 
such a theory. In the first place, we have the 
analogy which telepathic experiments give us, 
in which certain visual images are undoubtedly 
transmitted from one mind to another; and it 
is natural to assume that an extension of this 
same process might account for many of the 
phantasmal forms seen in haunted houses, as 
explained elsewhere. 

In the second place, we immediately surmount 
the difficulty presented by the ghost's clothes. 
This is a stumbling-block to many investigators. 
However much we might believe that an etheric 
or astral or spiritual body might continue to 
persist after death, it is hard to believe that the 
clothes of the person who died also had "spir- 
itual counterparts/' and returned with him, to 
visit the earth and the scenes of former joys and 
miseries! We seldom read of a ghost without 
clothes; nude ghosts are not the fashion! Yet 
if we cannot believe this, how are we to explain 
this difficulty — and the fact that ghosts wear 
ghostly garments? 

If the ghost were a hallucination, we could 
understand all this easily enough. The clothes 
were imaginary, just as the figure was; they 
formed part of the mental image, just like the 
figures seen in dreams, etc. This, therefore, is 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 57 

one very strong point in favor of this hypothe- 
sis; but if the ghost is a real, outstanding en- 
tity, how account for his clothes? 

Several tentative explanations have been 
forthcoming. In the first place, it has been sug- 
gested that all ghosts are in reality partial "ma- 
terializations" and that it is possible for a spirit 
to materialize and form drapery as well as solid 
flesh and bone. Both are a sort of condensa- 
tion of matter, in varying degrees. 

Again, it has been suggested that a spirit has 
the power to create objects by the power of will ; 
by merely thinking and willing to do so. In this 
way, man would be a real creator, in a minia- 
ture scale, and certain analogies could be found 
for this in the material world. The returning 
spirit would desire to return clothed; and this 
very desire would create the fitting garb. Other 
theories have been advanced, but the above are 
the simplest and most intelligible, and are all 
we need consider at present. 

All these difficulties, however, tell against the 
substantiality of ghosts ; and in favor of this sec- 
ond theory of haunted houses. 

TELEPATHY FROM THE DEAD 

(3). The third theory which has been ad- 
vanced, is an extension of the second. Thought- 



58 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

transference is still the agency invoked to ex- 
plain the facts — but from the minds of dead, 
and not living persons. That is, assuming tele- 
pathy to be true, and possible between living 
minds; and assuming that individual conscious- 
ness survives the change called death; we can 
readily imagine that those who have "passed 
over" might affect and influence the living by 
thought-transference also, just as they did in 
life. On this theory, therefore, the ghost would 
still represent a hallucination; a mental or im- 
aginary figure, and it would still be induced by 
telepathy from a distant mind; but that mind 
would be that of a so-called dead person. After 
death, we might suppose, this person would be 
thinking or dreaming over the past events; the 
scenes of his joys and sorrows ; and these dreams 
would tend to influence the minds of those still 
living, and cause them to see the figures seen. 
The figures, on this theory, would be hallucina- 
tory, but they would have a real, objective basis 
and starting-point for all that; and, as such, 
would represent the continued existence and ac- 
tivity on the part of the dead. 

Against this ingenious theory may be urged 
all those arguments which have been cited in 
favor of the materiality of apparitions. 



TEUE GHOST STORIES 5» 

THE PSYCHIC ATMOSPHERE 

(4). A fourth theory is that which says that 
some subtle psychic atmosphere is present in 
certain houses; and that this "atmosphere" af- 
fects and influences all who live within them, 
just as their physical atmosphere would, only in 
a different manner and degree. Everyone has 
doubtless experienced this atmosphere in cer- 
tain houses, if they are at all sensitive. They 
either "like" a house or "dislike" it — for no ap- 
parent reason. Some houses rest and refresh 
you; others irritate you, etc. This theory con- 
tends that every living human being is con- 
stantly giving off a peculiar vital emanation or 
aura or effluence; and that this charges-up or 
impregnates the material objects in his imme- 
diate neighborhood, which soak it up like a 
sponge, and retain it after being removed from 
its presence. It is because of this fact that ar- 
ticles presented to trance mediums often recall 
the person to whom they belonged ; it is because 
of this that "psychometry" is possible — that is, 
the ability of some persons to give the past his- 
tory of an object by merely handling it; and it 
is because of this that certain houses become so 
charged with this magnetic aura, or whatever it 
may be, that they remain "charged" for some 



60 TEUE GHOST STOEIES 

time; and, in discharging, create psychic dis- 
turbances and impressions which are seen or ex- 
perienced as phantasmal appearances. 

The chief objection to thi^ theory is that it is 
difficult to see how this general and impersonal 
"charging" process can create definite and clear- 
cut forms, possessing all the appearances of 
reality. Doubtless each theory contains much 
truth; and haunted houses represent, in many 
cases, a combination of all these causes, working 
together and combining into one complex and 
unfortunately ill-understood whole. It is the 
duty of the future to disentangle this maze, as 
best it can; and explain the various factors 
which go to make up a haunted house of this 
character. 

FOEMS CREATED BY WILL 

(5). Besides these theories, another might be 
suggested, which has never so far been ad- 
vanced, so far as I am aware. It is that the 
phantasmal forms seen in haunted houses are 
real substantial creations, manufactured by the 
thoughts or will of the discarnate spirit, who 
fashions it out of "such stuff as dreams are 
made of." It has been said that "thoughts are 
things," and many believe that this is literally 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 61 

true. Certain it is that a limited number of pe- 
culiarly constructed persons can produce phe- 
nomena which seem to be solid creations of the 
will. So, if thought could ever be proved to 
be really creative; if it could not only formulate 
but objectify and project into space images and 
forms, we should have here a rational explana- 
tion of many ghosts, as well as of their behavior. 
And just here a few words as to this latter may 
not be out of place. 

It has often been objected that ghosts can- 
not be realities; they cannot be real spirits, for 
the reason that they act in such a senseless 
manner. They seldom speak or reply, when 
spoken to. They seldom have any definite pur- 
pose. In short, they betray no intelligence. 
This being so, they must be hallucinations and 
not the realities they claim to be ! 

The answer to this objection is found in the 
following consideration. Even granting all this 
to be true, many believing in ghosts do not for 
an instant contend that such ghosts represent 
the actual person the figure symbolises. It is a 
mere projection; a shell; a form created by the 
discarnate spirit, a resemblance, a phantasm. 
The central consciousness which animated and 
still animates that person is not in the ghostly 
form, but elsewhere. The phantasm represents, 



«2 TKUE GHOST STORIES 

merely, a sort of impersonal wraith, and, as 
such, cannot be expected to possess intelligence 
or human characteristics. None are present 
within it. It is a very different thing from the 
real person it represents. The insipid and un- 
intelligent behavior of ghosts, therefore, is only 
what we should expect. This fact is no argu- 
ment against their reality, when rightly under- 
stood and interpreted. 

PHYSICAL MANIFESTATIONS 

In addition to haunted houses of this type, 
there are others, which must be referred to very 
briefly. Thus, in some cases, no figures have 
been seen, but remarkable sounds have been 
heard — sounds which have never been accounted 
for. Bangs, knocks, monotonous reading aloud, 
whispering, footsteps, etc., are some of the noises 
and sounds which have been heard in this way, 
and their origin often remains a mystery. It 
would take too long to discuss the various ex- 
planatory theories which have been advanced by 
psychic students to account for these sounds. 

In other types of haunted houses, physical 
manifestations take place, though nothing unus- 
ual is either seen or heard. Thus, in one case 
recorded by Lombroso (After Death: What?) 



TEUE GHOST STORIES 63 

numbers of bottles were broken one after the 
other, for no apparent cause, when he was ac- 
tually looking at them. In still other cases, fur- 
niture has been upset, crockery broken, door- 
bells rung, etc., by no visible agency. John Wes- 
ley was persecuted in this manner for several 
years; and the reason was never discovered. 
Such cases are technically known as "poltereg- 
ists," and may be found in abundance in the 
"history of the supernatural." 

CAN HAUNTED HOUSES BE "CUBED"? 

One question of considerable interest re- 
mains. It is this: Can so-called Haunted 
Houses be cured? Many of those who live in 
houses of this character would like to have these 
influences removed ; but are unable to rid them- 
selves of them. Can this be done? 

In some cases, this has doubtless been accom- 
plished ; while in others it has failed. We know 
too little as yet to lay down any arbitrary laws 
or rules which may be followed with safety in 
cases of this character. Sometimes one method 
succeeds, while another fails. I have known of 
cases where "exorcism" worked a complete cure ; 
of others in which it failed miserably. I have 
known of cases in which suggestion, rightly ap- 



64 TEUE GHOST STOEIES 

plied, rid the house of its ghost; in other in- 
stances, no result was produced by similar meth- 
ods ! In a few instances mediums and psychics 
have been able to assist; in others their pres- 
ence only seemed to make matters worse. We 
can but experiment and learn. Those who may 
be more interested in this aspect of the question 
will find it treated in Chapter XV. of my book 
"The Coming Science" which is devoted to 
"Haunted Houses and their Cure." 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 65 



CHAPTER II 

PHANTASMS OF THE DEAD — I. 

In the following Chapter, I shall give a num- 
ber of cases in which "Ghosts," or "Phantasms 
of the Dead," as they are called, have appeared 
to one or more persons at one time; sometimes 
telling them something they did not know; 
sometimes moving material objects in the room; 
sometimes pulling the bed-clothes off, etc. 
Nearly all these cases are well authenticated, 
and have been narrated at first-hand. Many of 
them have the corroborative testimony of sev- 
eral other persons, who also saw the phantasmal 
figure, or in some way shared in the experience. 
I shall begin with — 

A RUSSIAN GHOST 

The following story is vouched for by Mr. W. 
D. Addison, of Riga, and sent by him to Mr. W. 
T. Stead, who published it in Borderland : 

"It was in February, 1884, that the incidents 
I am about to relate occurred to me, and the 
story is well-known to my immediate friends. 



66 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

"Five weeks previously my wife had presented 
me with our first baby, and our house being a 
small one, I had to sleep on a bed made up in 
the drawing room — a spacious but cozy apart- 
ment, and the last place in which one would ex- 
pect ghosts to select for their wanderings. 

"On the night in question I retired to my 
couch soon after ten, and fell asleep almost the 
moment I was between the sheets. 

"Instead of sleeping as, I am thankful to say, 
is my habit, straight through till morning, I 
woke up after a short dreamless sleep with the 
dim consciousness upon me that some one had 
called me by name. I was just turning the idea 
over in my mind when all doubts were solved by 
my hearing my name pronounced in a faint 
whisper, "Willy." Now the nurse who was in 
attendance on the baby, and who slept in the 
dressing room adjoining bur bedroom, had been 
ill for the past few days, and on the previous 
evening my wife had come and asked me to as- 
sist her with the baby. As soon, therefore, as 
I heard this whisper, I turned round thinking, 
"Ah, it is the baby again." 

"The room had three windows in it, the night 
was moonless but starlit ; there was snow on the 
ground, and therefore, "snowlight," and the 
blinds being up the room was by no means dark. 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 67 

The first thing I noticed on turning round was 
the figure of a woman close to the foot of the 
bed, and whom (following the bent of my 
thoughts) I supposed to be my wife. What is 
up?' I asked, but the figure remained silent and 
motionless, and my eyes being more accustomed 
to the dimness, I noticed that it had a gray look- 
ing shawl over its head and shoulders, and that 
it was too short in stature to be my wife. I 
gazed at it silently, wondering who it could be ; 
apparitions and ghosts were far from my 
thoughts, and the mistiness of the outlines of 
this silent figure did not strike me at the mo- 
ment as it did afterwards. 

"I again addressed it, this time in the lan- 
guage of the country, 'What do you want?' 
Again no answer. And now it occurred to me 
that our servant girl sometimes walked in her 
sleep, and that this was she. Behind the head 
of my bed stood a small table, and I reached 
round for the match-box which was on it, never 
removing my eyes from the supposed somnam- 
bulist. The match-box was now in my hands, 
but just as I was taking out a match, the figure, 
to my astonishment, seemed to rise up from the 
floor, and move backwards toward the end win- 
dow; at the same time it faded rapidly and be- 
came blurred with the gray light streaming in 



68 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

at the window, and 'ere I could strike the match 
it was gone. I lit the candle, jumped out of bed 
and ran to the door: it was fastened! To the 
left of the drawing room there was a boudoir, 
separated only by a curtain, this room was 
empty too, and the door likewise fastened. 

"I rubbed my eyes. I was puzzled. It struck 
me now for the first time that the figure was 
hazy looking, also that my wife was the only 
person who called me 'Willy,' and certainly the 
only person who could give the word its Eng- 
lish pronunciation. I first searched both draw- 
ing room and boudoir, and then, opening the 
door, stepped into the passage, and went to my 
wife's door and listened. The baby was crying 
and my wife was up, so I knocked and was ad- 
mitted. Knowing her to be strong minded and 
not nervous, I quietly related my experience. 
She expressed astonishment, and asked if I was 
not afraid to return to my bed in the drawing 
room. However, I was not, and after chatting 
for a few moments went back to my quarters, 
fastened the door, and getting into bed, thought 
the whole matter over very quietly. I could 
think of no explanation of the occurrence, and, 
feeling sleepy, blew out the light and was soon 
sound asleep again. 

"After a short but sound and dreamless slum- 



TEUE GHOST STOKIES 69 

ber, I was again awakened, this time with my 
face towards the middle window; and there, 
close up against it, was the figure again, and 
owing to its propinquity to the light, it appeared 
to be a very dark object. 

"I at once reached out for the matches, but 
in doing so upset the table, and down it went 
with my candlestick, my watch, keys, etc., mak- 
ing a terrific crash. As before, I had kept my 
eyes fixed on the figure, and I now observed 
that, whatever it was, it was advancing straight 
towards me, and in another moment retreat to 
the door would be cut off. It was not a com- 
fortable idea to cope with the unknown in the 
dark, and in an instant I had seized the bed- 
clothes, and grasping a corner of them in each 
hand, and holding them up before me, I charged 
straight at the figure. (I suppose I thought 
that, by smothering the head of my supposed as- 
sailant, I could best repel the coming attack. ) 

"The next moment I had landed on my knees 
on a sofa by the window with my arms on the 
window-sill, and with the consciousness that 'it ? 
was now behind me — I having passed through it. 
With a bound I faced round, and was imme- 
diately immersed in a darkness impalpable to 
the touch, but so dense that it seemed to be 
weighing me down and squeezing me from all 



70 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

sides. I could not stir; the bed-clothes which I 
had seized as described hung over my left arm, 
the other was free, but seemed pressed down by 
a benumbing weight. I essayed to cry for help, 
but realized for the first time in my life what it 
means for the 'tongue to cleave to the roof of the 
mouth'; my tongue seemed to have become dry 
and to have swelled to a thickness of some 
inches ; it stuck to the roof of my mouth, and I 
could not ejaculate a syllable. At last, after an 
appalling struggle, I succeeded in uttering, and 
I know that disjointed words, half prayer, half 
execrations of fear, left my lips, then my mind 
seemed to make one frantic effort, there seemed 
to come a wrench like an electric shock and my 
limbs were free ; it was as tho' I tore myself out 
of something. In a few seconds I had reached 
and opened the door and was in the passage, 
listening to the hammerings of my heart-beats. 
All fear was gone from me, but I felt as though 
I had run miles for my life and that another 
ten yards of it would have killed me. 

"I again went to the door of my wife's room, 
and, hearing that she was up with the baby, I 
knocked and she opened. She is a witness to 
the state I was in: the drops rolling down my 
face, my hair was damp, and the beatings of 
my heart were audible some paces off. I can 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 71 

offer no explanations of what I saw, but as soon 
as my story became known, the people who had 
occupied the house previously told me that they 
had once put a visitor in that same drawing 
room, who had declared the room to be haunted 
and had refused to stay in it. . . . " 

GRASPED BY A SPIRIT HAND 

The following account is vouched for by Major 
C. G. MaeGregor, Ireland, who writes as fol- 
lows: 

"In the end of the year 1871 I went over 
from Scotland to pay a short visit to a relative 
living in a square on the north side of Dublin. 

"In January, 1872, the husband of my rela- 
tive, then in his eighty-fourth year, was seized 
with paralysis, and, having no trained nurse, 
the footman and I sat up with him for sixteen 
nights during his recovery. On the seventeenth 
night, at about 11:30 p.m., I said to the foot- 
man: 'The master seems so well, and sleeping 
soundly, I shall go to bed; and if he awakes 
worse, or you require me, call me.' I then re- 
tired to my room, which was over the one oc- 
cupied by the invalid. 

"I went to bed and was soon asleep, when 
some time afterwards I was awakened by a 
slight push on the left shoulder. I was at the 



72 TKUE GHOST STOKIES 

time lying on my right side facing the door 
(which was on the right side of my bed, and the 
fireplace on the left). I started up and said: 
'Edward, is there anything wrong?' I received 
no answer, but immediately received another 
push. I got annoyed and said, 'Can you not 
speak, man, and tell me if anything is wrong?' 
Still no answer; and I had a feeling that I was 
going to get another push when I suddenly 
turned around and caught (what I then 
thought) a human hand, warm, soft and plump. 
I said: 'Who are you?' but I got no answer. I 
then tried to pull the person towards me, to en- 
deavor to find out who it was, but although 1 
am nearly thirteen stone, I could not move 
whoever it was, but felt that I myself was likely 
to be drawn from the bed. I then said, 'I will 
know who you are, and having the hand tight in 
my hand, with my left I felt the wrist and arm 
— enclosed, as it seemed to me, in a tight sleeve 
of some winter material with a linen cuff; but 
when I got to the elbow all trace of the arm 
ceased ! I was so astonished that I let the hand 
go, and just then the house clock struck 2 a.m. 
I then thought no one could possibly get to the 
door without my catching them ; but lo ! the door 
was fast shut as when I came to bed, and an- 
other thought struck me— the fact that, when I 



TEUE GHOST STOEIES 73 

pulled the hand, I heard no one breathing, 
though I myself was 'puffed' from the strength 
I used! 

"Including the mistress of the house, there 
were in all five females, and I am assured that 
the hand belonged to no one of them. When I 
related the adventure, the servants exclaimed, 
'Oh, it must be the master's old aunt Betty/ — 
an old lady who had lived for many years in the 
upper part of the house, occupying two rooms, 
and had died over fifty years ago, at a great 
age. I afterwards learned that the room in 
which I felt the hand had been considered 
'haunted/ and many curious noises and peculiar 
incidents had occurred there, such as the bed- 
clothes being torn off. One lady got a slap in 
the face from some invisible hand, and, when she 
lighted her candle, she saw something opaque 
fall, or jump off the bed. A general officer, a 
brother of the lady, slept there two nights, but 
preferred going to an hotel rather than remain- 
ing a third ! He never would say what he heard 
or saw, but always asserted the room was 'un- 
canny.' I slept for months in that room after- 
wards and was never in the least disturbed. I 
never knew what nervousness was in my life, 
and only regret that my astonishment caused me 
to let go the hand before finding out the purpose 



74 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

of the visit. Whether it was meant for a warn- 
ing or not, I may add that the old gentleman 
lived three years and six months after- 
wards. . . . " 

"1 am shot!" 

The next case is well authenticated, and ap- 
peared in the Proceedings of the Society for 
Psychical Research ( S. P. R. ) : 

After some preliminary remarks, the writer 
proceeds : 

"I awoke and saw standing by my bed, be- 
tween me and the chest of drawers, a figure, 
which, in spite of the unwonted dress — un- 
wonted, at least, to me — and of a full, black 
beard, I at once recognized as that of my old 
brother officer. He had on the usual khaki coat, 
worn by the officers on service in eastern cli- 
mates. . . . His face was pale, but his bright 
black eyes shone as keenly as when, a year and 
a half before, they had looked upon me as he 
stood with one foot on the hansom, bidding me 
adieu. 

"Fully impressed for the moment that we 
were stationed together in Ireland or some- 
where, and thinking I was in my barrack-room, 
I said, 'Hello, P., am I late for parade?' P. 
looked at me steadily, and replied, 'I'm shot!' 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 75 

"'Shot!' I exclaimed, 'Good God. how and 
where V 

" 'Through the lungs/ replied P. ; and as he 
spoke his right hand moved slowly up to his 
breast, until the fingers rested over the right 
lung. 

" 'What were you doing V I asked. 

" 'The General sent me forward/' he answered ; 
and the right hand left the breast to move 
slowly to the front, pointing over my head to 
the window, and at the same moment the figure 
melted away. I rubbed my eyes, to make sure 
I was not dreaming, and sprang out of bed. It 
was then 4.10 a.m. by the clock on my mantel- 
piece. 

"Two days later news was received that he 
had been killed at Lang's Neck between 11 and 
12 o'clock on the night in question." 

The following is a nautical story: 

HEAVE THE LEAD ! 

In the year 1664, Captain Thomas Rogers, 
commander of a ship called the Society, was 
bound on a voyage from London to Virginia. 
The vessel being sent light to Virginia, for a 
loading of tobacco, carried little freight in her 
outward hold. 



76 TKUE GHOST STOEIES 

"One day when they made an observation, the 
mates and officers brought their books and cast 
up their reckonings with the captain, to see 
how near they were to the coast of America. 
They all agreed that they were a hundred 
leagues from the capes of Virginia. Upon these 
customary reckonings, and heaving the lead, and 
finding no ground at a hundred fathoms, they 
set the watch, and the captain turned in. 

"The weather was fine; a moderate gale of 
wind blew from the coast; so that the ship 
might have run about twelve or thirteen leagues 
in the night, after the captain was in his cabin. 

"He fell asleep, and slept very soundly for 
about three hours, when he woke again, and lay 
still till he heard his second mate turn out and 
relieve the watch. He then called his first mate, 
as he was going off watch, and asked him how 
all things fared? The mate answered that all 
was well, though the gale had freshened, and 
they were running at a great rate; but it was a 
fair wind, and a fair, clear night. 

"The captain then went to sleep again. 

"About an hour after, he dreamed that some 
one had pulled him, and bade him turn out and 
look abroad. He, however, lay still and went 
to sleep again; but was suddenly re-awakened. 
This occurred several times; and, though he 



TRUE GHOST STOEIES 77 

knew not what was the reason, yet he found it 
impossible to go to sleep any more. Still he 
heard the vision say: 'Turn out and look 
abroad.' 

"The captain lay in this state of uneasiness 
nearly two hours, until finally he felt compelled 
to don his great coat and go on deck. All was 
well ; it was a fine, clear night. 

"The men saluted him; and the captain called 
out: 'How's she heading?' 

" 'Southwest by south, sir/ answered the 
mate; 'fair for the coast, and the wind east by 
north.' 

" 'Very good,' said the captain, and as he was 
about to return to his cabin, something stood by 
him, and said: 'Heave the lead.' 

"Upon hearing this the captain said to the 
second mate: 'When did you heave the lead? 
What water had you?' 

" 'About an hour ago, sir,' replied the mate ; 
'sixty fathom.' 

" 'Heave again,' the captain commanded. 

"When the lead was cast they had ground at 
eleven fathoms. This surprised them all; but 
much more when, at the next cast, it came up 
seven fathoms. 

"Upon this, the captain, in a fright, bid them 
put the helm alee, and about ship, all hands or- 



78 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

dered to back the sails, as is usual in such cases. 
"The proper orders being observed, the ship 
'stayed' and came about; but before the sails 
filled, she had but four-fathoms-and-a-half wa- 
ter under her stern. As soon as she filled and 
stood off, they had seven fathoms again, and at 
the next cast eleven fathoms, and . so on to 
twenty fathoms. They then stood off to seaward 
all the rest of the watch, to get into deep water, 
till daybreak, when, being a clear morning, the 
capes of Virginia were in fair view under their 
stern, and but a few leagues distant. Had they 
stood-on but one cable-length further, as they 
were going, they would have been ashore, and 
certainly lost their ship, if not their lives — all 
through the erroneous reckonings of the previous 
day. Who or what was it that waked the cap- 
tain and bade him save the ship? That he has 
never been able to tell !" 

The incident which follows is somewhat sim- 
ilar — though more dramatic — being also a nau- 
tical story: 

THE RESCUE AT SEA 

The following famous narrative is taken from 
Mr. Robert Dale Owen's collection, printed in 



TKUE GHOST STOKIES 79 

his Footfalls on the Boundry of Another 
World, and The Debatable Land Between this 
World and the Newt. It is quite a famous case, 
and is vouched for by Mr. Owen. It is as fol- 
lows : 

"Mr. Kobert Bruce, descended from some 
branch of tjie Scottish family of the same name, 
was born in humble circumstances about the 
close of the eighteenth century at Torbay, in the 
south of England, and there bred up to a sea- 
faring life. When about thirty years of age (in 
the year 1828), he was first mate on board a 
barque trading between Liverpool and St. 
John's, New Brunswick. 

"On one of her voyages, bound westward, be- 
ing then some five or six weeks out, and having 
neared the eastern portion of the Banks of New- 
foundland, the captain and the mate had been 
on deck at noon, taking an observation of the 
sun; after which they both descended to calcu- 
late their day's work. 

"The cabin, a small one, was immediately at 
the stern of the vessel, and the short stairway, 
descending to it, ran athwart-ships. Imme- 
diately opposite to this stairway, just beyond a 
small, square landing, was the mate's state 
room; and from that landing there were two 
doors, close to each other — the one opening aft 



80 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

into the cabin, the other fronting the stairway 
into the stateroom. The desk in the stateroom 
was in the forward part of it, close to the door ; 
so that anyone sitting at it, and looking over his 
shoulder, could see into the cabin. 

"The mate, absorbed in his calculation, which 
did not result as he expected, varying consider- 
ably from the 'dead reckoning/ had not noticed 
the captain's motions. When he had completed 
his calculations, he cried out, without looking 
round, 'I make our latitude and longitude so- 
and-so. Can that be right? How is yours, sir?' 

"Receiving no reply he repeated the question, 
glancing over his shoulder and perceiving, as he 
thought, the captain busy at his slate. Still no 
answer ! Thereupon he rose, and, as he fronted 
the cabin door, the figure he had mistaken for 
the captain raised his head and disclosed to the 
astonished mate the features of an entire 
stranger. 

"Bruce was no coward, but as he met that 
fixed gaze, looking directly at him in grave si- 
lence, and became assured that it was no one 
whom he had ever seen before, it was too much 
for him; and, instead of stopping to question 
the seeming intruder, he rushed upon deck in 
such evident alarm that it instantly attracted 
the captain's attention. 



TEUE GHOST STOEIES 81 

" 'Why, Mr. Bruce/ said the latter, 'what in 
the world is the matter with you?' 

" 'The matter, sir? Who is that at your 
desk?' 

" 'No one that I know of.' 

" 'But there is, sir, there's a stranger there.' 

" 'A stranger? T7hy, man, you must be 
dreaming! You must have seen the steward 
there, or the second mate. Who else would ven- 
ture down without orders?' 

" 'But, sir, he was sitting in your arm chair, 
fronting the door, writing on your slate. Then 
he looked up full in my face; and if ever I saw 
a man plainly and distinctly in the world I saw 
him.' 

"'Kim! Who?' 

" 'Heaven knows, sir ; I don't ! I saw a man 
and a man I have never seen in my life before.' 

" 'You must be going crazy, Mr. Bruce. A 
stranger, and we nearly six weeks out!' 

"The captain descended the stairs, and the 
mate followed him. Nobody in the cabin ! They 
examined the staterooms. Not a soul could be 
found. 

" 'Well, Mr. Bruce,' said the Captain, 'did not 
I tell you that you had been dreaming?' 

"'It's all very well to say so, sir; but if I 
didn't see that man writing on the slate may I 
never see home and family again!' 



82 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

" 'Ah ! Writing on the slate. Then it should 
be there still !' And the captain took it up. 'By 
heaven/ he exclaimed, 'here's something sure 
enough! Is that your writing, Mr. Bruce?' 

"The mate took the slate; and there, in plain, 
legible characters, stood the words: 'Steer to 
the Nor '-west.' 

"The captain sat down at his desk, the slate 
before him, in deep thought. At last turning 
the slate over, and pushing it toward Bruce, he 
said : 'Write down : "Steer to the nor'west." ' 

"The mate complied ; and the captain, compar- 
ing the two handwritings, said: 'Mr. Bruce, 
go and tell the second mate to come down here.' 

"He came, and at the captain's request, he 
also wrote the words. So did the steward. So 
in succession did every man of the crew who 
could write at all. But not one of the various 
hands resembled, in any degree, the mysterious 
writing. 

"When the crew retired, the captain sat deep 
in thought. 'Could anyone have been stowed 
away?' at last he said. 'The ship must be 
searched. Order up all hands.' 

"Every nook and corner of the vessel was 
thoroughly searched; not a living soul was 
found. 

"Accordingly, the captain decided to change 



TKUE GHOST STOKIES 83 

the vessel's course according to the instructions 
received. A look-out was posted; who shortly 
reported an iceberg, and then, shortly after, a 
vessel close to it. 

"As they approached, the captain's glass dis- 
closed the fact that it was a dismantled ship, 
apparently frozen to the ice. ... It proved to 
be a vessel from Quebec, bound for Liverpool, 
with passengers on board. She had got entan- 
gled in the ice, and finally frozen fast ; and had 
passed several weeks in a most critical situation. 
She was stove, her decks swept; in fact, a mere 
wreck; all her provisions and almost all her 
water gone. Her crew and passengers had lost 
all hope of being saved, and their gratitude at 
the unexpected rescue was proportionately great. 

"As one of the men who had been brought 
away in the third boat ascended the ship's side, 
the mate, catching a glimpse of his face, started 
back in consternation. It was the very face he 
had seen three or four hours before, looking up 
at him from the captain's desk! He communi- 
cated this fact to the captain. 

"After the comfort of the passengers had been 
seen to, the captain turned to the stranger, and 
said to him: 'I hope, sir, you will not think I 
am trifling with you, but I would be much 
obliged to you if you would write a few words 



84 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

on this slate. And lie handed him the slate, 
with that side up on which the mysterious writ- 
ing was not. 

" 'I will do anything you ask/ replied the 
passenger, 'but what shall I write?' 

" 'A few words are all I want. Suppose you 
write: 'Steer to the nor'-west.' 

"The passenger, evidently puzzled to make out 
the motive of such a request, complied, however, 
with a smile. The captain took up the slate and 
examined it closely ; then stepping aside so as to 
conceal the slate from the passenger, he turned 
it over and gave it to him the other side up. 

" 'You say that this is your handwriting V 
said he. 

" 'I need not say so/ replied the other, look- 
ing at it, 'for you saw me write it. ? 

" 'And this?' said the captain, turning the 
slate over. 

"The man looked first at one writing, then at 
the other, quite confounded. At last : 'What is 
the meaning of this?' said he. 'I only wrote one 
of these. Who wrote the otherV 

" 'That's more than I can tell you, sir. My 
mate here says you wrote it, sitting at this desk, 
at noon to-day !' 

"The captain of the wreck and the passenger 
looked at each other, exchanging glances of in- 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 85 

telligence and surprise; then the former asked 
the latter: 'Did you dream that you wrote on 
this slate V 

" 'No, sir, not that I remember.' 

" 'You speak of dreaming/ said the captain of 
the barque. 'What was this gentleman about 
at noon to-day V 

'"Captain/ rejoined the other, (the captain 
of the wreck), 'the whole thing is most myste- 
rious and extraordinary; and I had intended to 
speak to you about it as soon as we got a little 
quiet. This gentleman — pointing to the passen- 
ger — being much exhausted, fell into a heavy 
sleep, or what seemed such, some time before 
noon. After an hour or more, he awoke, and 
said to me: 'Captain, we shall be relieved this 
very day.' When I asked him wiiat reason he 
had for saying so, he replied that he had 
dreamed that he was on board a barque, and 
that she was coming to our rescue. He de- 
scribed her appearance and rig, and, to our utter 
astonishment, when your vessel hove in sight, 
she corresponded exactly to his description of 
her! We had not put much faith in what he 
said; yet still we hoped there might be some- 
thing in it, for drowning men, as you know, 
catch at straws. As it turned out, 1 cannot 
doubt that it was all arranged by some over- 
ruling Providence.' 



86 TRUE GHOST STOKIES 

" 'There is not a doubt/ replied tlie captain of 
the barque, 'that the writing on the slate, let 
it come there as it may, saved all your lives. I 
was steering at the time considerably south of 
west, and I altered my course for the nor'-west, 
and had a look-out aloft, to see what would come 
of it. But you say/ he added, turning to the 
passenger, 'that you did not dream of writing 
on a slate?' 

" 'No, sir. I have no recollection whatever of 
doing so. I got the impression that the barque 
I saw in my dream was coming to rescue us ; but 
how that impression came I cannot tell. There 
is another very strange thing about it/ he added. 
'Everything here on board seems to be quite fa- 
miliar; yet I am very sure that I was never in 
your vessel before. It is all a puzzle to me! 
What did your mate see?' 

"Thereupon Mr. Bruce related to them all the 
circumstances above detailed." 

HOW GHOSTS INFLUENCE US 

The following is a very interesting case, which 
brings vividly before us the fact that ghosts of- 
ten draw power from those who witness their 
manifestations — just as they draw vitality from 
a materializing "medium/' during a seance. As 



TEUE GHOST STOEIES 87 

cases of this character are rare, the following is 
of considerable value: 

"It was an afternoon, last autumn, about six 
o'clock. I had returned from a stroll and was 
sitting in my own apartment on Central Park 
West, reading Vanity Fair. While turning over 
its pages I became suddenly aware of a novel 
and indescribable sensation. My chest and 
breathing became inwardly oppressed by some 
ponderous weight, wiiile I became conscious of 
some 'presence' behind me, exerting a powerful 
influence on the forces within. On trying to turn 
my head to see what it could be, I was powerless 
to do so; neither could I lift a hand, or move 
in any way. I was not a little alarmed, and be- 
gan immediately to reason. My mind was alive, 
though physically I was unable to move a mus- 
cle. It was as if the current of nerve force 
within seemed forcibly drawn together and fo- 
cussed on a spot in front of me. 

"I gazed motionless, as though with something 
intenser than ordinary eyesight, on what was no 
longer vacant space. There an oval, misty light 
was forming — elongatory, widening, yes, act- 
ually developing into a human face and form. 
Was this hallucination, or some vision of the un- 
seen, coming in so unexpected a fashion? Be- 
fore me had arisen a remarkable figure, never 



88 TRUE GHOST STOKIES 

seen before in a picture or life — dark-skinned, 
aged, with white beard, the expression intensely 
earnest, the features small, the bald head finely 
moulded, lofty over the forehead, the whole de- 
meanor instinct with solemn grace. 

"He was speaking to me in deep tones, as if in 
urgent entreaty. What would I not give to hear 
words from such a figure ! But no effort availed 
me to distinguish one articular sound. I tried 
to speak, but could not. With desperate effort I 
shook out the words, ' Speak louder? The face 
grew more intent, the voice louder and more em- 
phatic. Was there something amiss with my 
own hearing, then, that I could distinguish no 
word amid these deeply emphasized tones? 
Slowly and deliberately the figure vanished — 
through the same stages of indistinctness, back 
to the globular lamplike whiteness, till it faded 
to nothingness. Before it had quite faded away, 
the face only of a woman arose, indistinct and 
dim. The same emphatic hum, though in a sub- 
dued note ; the same paralysis of voice and mus- 
cle, the same strange force, as it was overshad- 
owing me. With the disappearance of this sec- 
ond and far less interesting figure, I recovered 
my power of movement and arose. 

"My. first impulse was to look around for the 
origin of this strange force; my second to rush 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 89 

to the looking-glass to make sure of myself. 
There could be no illusion. There I was, paler 
than usual, the forehead bathed in perspiration. 
I threw open the window. It was no dream. 
There were the passing trolley cars below, clang- 
ing up and down, while a crowd of noisy young- 
sters were playing in the park across the way. 
I sponged my face, and, greatly agitated, walked 
hurriedly to and fro. If this is real, I thought, 
it may recur. I would sit in the same position, 
try to be calm, read a book, remain as still and 
passive as I could, and see the result. 

"To my intense interest, and almost at once, 
the strange sense of some power operating on 
the .nerve-forces within, followed by the same 
loss of muscular power, the same wide-awake- 
ness of the reason, the same drawing out and 
concentrating of the energies on that spot in 
front, repeated itself — this time more deliber- 
ately, leaving me freer to take mental notes of 
what was happening, ^gain arose the noble, 
earnest figure, gazing at me, the hands moving 
in solemn accompaniment to the deep tones of 
voice. The same effort, painful on my part, to 
hear, with no result. The vision passed. Again 
the woman's face, insignificant and meaningless, 
succeeded it as before. She spoke, but in less 
emphatic tones. It flashed upon me that I 



90 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

would hear. After a frantic effort, I caught 
two words — 'Land/ 'America' — with positively 
no cine to their meaning. 

"I was wide awake when the first apparition 
appeared, and in a highly excited state of mind 
on its re-appearance. " 

HOW A GHOST WARNED THE KING 

Kings and queens are not exempt from visita- 
tions of the supernatural; indeed, a large num- 
ber of royal dignitaries have seen '-'ghosts," and 
have been haunted by specters in as unpleasant 
a manner as any ordinary mortal. Were we to 
hunt through the pages of history, we should 
find many of these — some of which it will doubt- 
less be of interest to give at some future time. 
The following account is taken from the Annals 
of the Kingdom of Scotland, and is told in queer 
old English, with long 's's/ and so on, making it 
very hard to read in the original! I interpret 
it into modern English as best I can, maintain- 
ing its form: 

"While James IV. stayed at Linlithgow, to 
gather up the scattered remains of his army, 
which had been defeated by the Earl of Surrey, 
at Flodden-field, he went into the Church of St. 
Michael there to hear evening prayer. While 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 91 

he was at his devotionAa remarkable figure of an 
ancient man, with flowing amber-colored hair 
hanging over his shoulders, his forehead high, 
and inclining to baldness, his garments of a fine 
blue color, somewhat long and girded together, 
with a fine white cloth, of comely and very rever- 
ent aspect, was seen inquiring for the king; 
when his majesty being pointed out to him he 
made his way through the crowd till he came to 
him, and then, with a clown's simplicity, leaning 
over the cannon's feet, he addressed him in the 
following words: 'Sir, I am sent hither to en- 
treat you to delay your intended expedition for 
this time, and proceed no further ; for if you do, 
you will be unfortunate, and not prosper in your 
enterprise, nor any of your followers. I am 
further charged to warn you, not to follow the 
acquaintance, company or counsel of women, as 
you value your life, honour and estate.' 

" After giving him this admonition, he with- 
drew himself back through the crowd and dis- 
appeared. 

"When service was ended, the king enquired 
earnestly after him, but he could not be found 
or heard of anywhere, neither could any of the 
bystanders (of whom many narrowly watched 
him, resolving afterwards to have discoursed 
with him) feel or perceive how, when or where 



92 TEUE GHOST STOEIES 

he passed from them, having in a manner van- 
ished from their sight. 

"This caused the king to feel some uneasiness ; 
'for,' said he, 'if he were mortal man, how did 
he go so quickly hence, and how did he give me 
such advice, which I, of all men, know at this 
time to be of value V The king was sorely puz- 
zled; and called the warden of the church to 
him, and questioned him as to the man whom 
he had seen. 

"And when the warden had heard the tale 
from the king, he questioned him in turn, as to 
the man's appearance — whether he was this and 
that; and of the man's manner of speech. And 
when the king had answered to his satisfaction, 
he turned pale ; and said : 'Oh, king, the person- 
age whom you saw to-day was not mortal man ; 
but one dead long ago; one who lived and died 
close here ; and known to many of us well. He 
has been known to come before in times of great 
stress; and his advice has always been good. 
Truly, my lord, you have this day seen an ap- 
parition of a dead man.' 

"And the king marvelled at what he had 
seen." 

"Thus ends the curious old narrative. It will 
be seen that several others saw the ghost be- 
sides the king. These are called "collective 



V 

TRUE GHOST STORIES 93 

cases" by those engaged in psychical studies ; for 
the reason that several persons saw the figure 
at the same time, or "collectively." Such cases 
have never been satisfactorily explained. For, if 
the phantom were a mere hallucination, as many 
claim, how did several see it at once? 

THE STAINS OF BLOOD 

The following narrative was personally re- 
lated to Robert Dale Owen, by a clergyman of 
the Church of England, who was Chaplain, at 
the time, to the British Legation in Florence. 
It is as follows: 

"In the year 1856, I was staying with my 
wife and children, at a favorite watering place. 
In order to attend to some affairs of my own, 
I determined to- leave my family there for three 
or four days. Accordingly, on the 8th of Aug- 
ust, I took the railway, and arrived that even- 
ing an unexpected guest at the Hall — the resi- 
dence of a gentleman whose acquaintance I had 
recently made, and with whom my sister was 
then staying. 

"I arrived late, soon afterwards went to bed, 
and before long fell asleep. Awaking after three 
or four hours, I was not surprised to find that I 
could sleep no more — for I never rest well in a 



94 TEUE GHOST STOEIES 

strange bed. After trying, therefore, in vain to 
induce sleep, I began to arrange my plans for 
the day. I had been engaged some little time in 
this way, when I became suddenly sensitive to 
the fact that there was a light in the room. 
Turning round, I distinctly perceived a female 
figure ; and what attracted my special attention 
was that the light by which I saw it emanated 
from itself. I watched the figure attentively. 
The features were not perceptible. After mov- 
ing a little distance, it disappeared as suddenly 
as it Lad appeared. 

"My first thoughts were that there was some 
trick. I immediately got out of bed, struck a 
light, and found my bedroom door still locked. 
I then carefully examined the walls, to ascer- 
tain if there was any other concealed means of 
entrance or exit, but none could I find. I drew 
the curtains and opened the shutters, but all 
outside was silent and dark, there being no 
moonlight. After examining the room in every 
part, I went back to bed, and began thinking 
calmly over the whole matter. What had I 
seen? And why did It appear 1 

"In the morning, as soon as I was up and 
dressed, I told my sister what I had seen. She 
then informed me that the house had the repu- 
tation of being "haunted"; and that a murder 



TEUE GHOST STORIES 95 

had been committed in it; but not in the room 
in which I had slept. Later in the day I left — 
after making my sister promise to do all she 
could to unravel the mystery. 

"On the following Wednesday morning, I re- 
ceived a letter from my sister, in which she in- 
formed me that, since I left, she had made in- 
quiries and had ascertained that the murder ivas 
committed in the very room in which I slept! 
She added that she proposed visiting us the next 
day, and that she would like me to write out an 
account of what I had seen — together with a 
plan of the room, and that on that plan she 
wished me to mark the place of the appearance 
and disappearance of the figure. 

"This I immediately did; and the next day 
when my sister arrived, she asked me if I had 
complied with her request? I replied, pointing 
to the drawing room table: 'Yes, there is the 
account and the plan/ 

"As she rose to examine it, I prevented her, 
saying: 'Do not look at it until you have told 
me all you have to say, because you might unin- 
tentionally color your story by what you may 
read there.' 

"Thereupon she informed me that she had had 
the carpet taken up in the room I had occu- 
pied, and that the marks of blood from the mur- 



96 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

dered person were there, plainly visible, on a 
particular part of the floor. At my request she 
also then drew a plan of the room, and marked 
upon it the spots which still bore traces of 
blood. The two plans — my sister's and mine 
— were now compared ; and we verified the most 
remarkable fact that the place she had marked 
as the beginning and ending of the traces of 
blood coincided exactly with the spots marked 
on my plan as those on which the female figure 
had appeared and disappeared!" 

FACE TO FACE! 

The following case is recorded by the wife of 
Colonel Lewin, and is reported in the Proceed- 
ings of the S. P. R. : 

"In January, 1868, I took a house close to 
Hastings. . . . One night there was a heavy 
storm, the weather was bitterly cold, and a fire 
was burning in my bedroom when I went to bed 
at 10.30. I tried to go to sleep, but it was no 
use ; the noise of the wind and the rain kept me 
awake. I must have been lying like this for a 
couple of hours when I became conscious of 
what seemed like a light in the room. ... I 
thought the fire must have re-kindled itself, and 
crawled along on my knees on the bed to look 
at the fire over the high wooden foot, to see how 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 97 

this might be. I had no thought of anything 
but the fire, and was not nervous in the slight- 
est degree. As I raised myself on my knees and 
looked over the foot of the bed, I found myself 
face to face, at a distance of about three feet, 
with the semblance of a man. I never for a 
moment thought he was a man, but was struck 
with the feeling that this was one from the 
dead. 

"The light seemed to emanate from round this 
figure, but the only portions which I saw clearly 
were the head and shoulders. The face I shall 
never forget ; it was pale, emaciated, with a thin, 
high-bridged nose, and eyes deeply sunk and 
glowing in the sockets with a sort of glare. A 
long beard was seemingly rolled in under a 
white comforter, and on the head was a slouched 
felt hat. I had a nervous shock, and felt a dead 
person was looking upon me — a living one, but 
had no sensation of being actually frightened, 
until the figure moved slowly as if interposing 
between me and the door, then horror overcame 
me and I fell back in a dead faint. How long I 
remained unconscious I know not, but I came 
to myself cold and cramped ; the room was quite 
dark and nothing was visible. Thoroughly tired 
out, I got into bed, and slept soundly until 
morning." 



98 TEUE GHOST STORIES 

JULIA, darling! 

The next example is from the Proceedings of 
the S. P. R. (Vol. V., pp. 440-41), and Mr. 
Myers states that the writer was well known to 
him. The account reads in part : 

"My mother died on the 24th of June, 1874, at 
Slima, Malta, where we were then residing for 
her health. Seven nights later she appeared to 
me. ... I seemed to have been sleeping some 
time when I woke, and, turning over on the 
other side towards the window, saw my mother 
standing by my bedside, crying and wringing 
her hands. I had not been awake long enough 
to remember that she was dead, and exclaimed 
quite naturally, 'Why, dear, what's the matter?' 
and then suddenly remembering, I screamed. 
The nurse sprang up from the next room, but 
on the top step flung herself on her knees and 
began to tell her beads and cry. My father at 
the same moment arrived at the opposite door, 
and I heard his sudden exclamation of 'Jnlia, 
darling.' My mother turned towards him, and 
then to me, and, wringing her hands again, re- 
treated towards the nursery and was lost. The 
nurse afterwards stated that she distinctly felt 
something pass her. . . . My father ordered 
her out of the room, and telling me that I had 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 9& 

only been dreaming, stayed until I fell asleep. 
The next day, however, he told me that he, too, 
had seen the vision, and that he hoped to do so 
again, and that if ever she came to see me . . . 
I was not to be frightened . . . but she never 
appeared again." 

THE CUT ACROSS THE CHEEK 

In the narrative which follows, the appari- 
tion conveyed — by its very appearance — infor- 
mation which the percipient could not possibly 
have known. It is from Mr. H. Walton, of 
Dent, Sedburgh, England, and was sent to Mr. 
Stead, who published it: 

"In the month of April, 1881, I was located 
in Norfolk, and my duties took me once a fort- 
night to a fishing village on the coast — so I can 
guarantee the following facts : It is customary 
for the fishing smacks to go to Grimsby 'line 
fishing' in the spring. The vessels started one 
afternoon on their journey north. In the even- 
ing, a heavy north-east wind blew, and one of 
the boats mistook the white surf on the rocks 
for the reflection of a lighthouse. In conse- 
quence the boat got into shallow water, a heavy- 
sea came, and swept two men from the deck.. 
One man grasped a rope and was saved; the 



100 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

other, a younger man, failed to save himself, 
though an expert swimmer. It was said that he 
was heard to shout about 11 o'clock. 

"Towards one o'clock, the young man's 
mother, lying awake, saw his apparition come 
to the foot of the bed, clad in white, and she 
screamed with fright, and told her husband 
what she had seen, and that J. was drowned. 
He sought in vain to calm her by saying that 
she must have been dreaming. She asserted the 
contrary. Next day, when her daughter came in 
with the telegram of the sad event, before her 
daughter had time to speak, she cried out : ' J. is 
drowned,' and became unconscious; she re- 
mained in this state for many hours. When she 
regained consciousness, she told them particu- 
larly and distinctly what she had seen; and 
what is to the point is this remarkable thing: 
she said : 'If ever the body is found, it has a cut 
across the cheek,' — specifying which cheek. 
The body was found some days after, and ex- 
actly as mother had seen it, was the cut on the 
cheek." 

THE INVISIBLE HAND 

The following account was sent to the S. P. R. 
Ghosts are usually seen; they are sometimes 
heard; they are very rarely felt. The account 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 101 

which follows is an example of the latter class, 
in which the ghost was not only seen but 
touched. 

After stating that she was visiting a friend 
of hers in the country, when the event occurred, 
the narrator proceeds : 

"We went upstairs together, I being perhaps 
a couple of steps behind my friend, when, on 
reaching the topmost step, I felt something sud- 
denly slip behind me from an unoccupied room 
on the left of the stairs. Thinking it must be 
imagination, no one being in the house except 
the widow and servant, who occupied rooms on 
another landing, I did not speak to my friend, 
who turned off to a room on the right, but 
walked quickly into my room, which faced the 
staircase, still feeling as though a tall figure 
was bending over me. I turned on the gas, 
struck a light, and was in the act of applying it, 
when I felt a heavy grasp on my arm of a hand, 
minus the middle finger. Upon this I uttered 
a loud cry, which brought my friend, the widow 
lady, and the servant girl, into the room to in- 
quire the cause of my alarm. The two latter 
turned very pale on hearing the story. The 
house was thoroughly searched, but nothing was 
discovered. 

"Some weeks passed, and I had ceased to be 



102 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

alarmed at the occurrence, when I chanced to 
mention it whilst spending the afternoon with 
some friends. A gentleman asked me if I had 
ever heard a description or seen a 'carte' of the 
lady's late husband. On receiving a reply in 
the negative, he said, singularly enough, he was 
tall, had a slight stoop, and has lost the middle 
finger on his hand! On my return, I inquired 
of the servant, who had been in the family from 
childhood, if such were the case, and learned 
that it was quite correct, and that she (the girl) 
had once, when sleeping in the same room, awak- 
ened on feeling some one pressing down her 
knees, and on opening her eyes saw her late mas- 
ter by the bed side — on which she fainted, and 
had never dared to enter the room after dark 
since. She is not an imaginative girl ; nor am I. 
When I was grasped, however, / did not see 
anything. 

"But worse was to follow ! It so chanced that 
I had to sleep in that room once again, as the 
house was full of company, and there was no- 
where else for me to go. I had by this time got 
over my fears, and hardly minded the idea of 
sleeping in the room at all. I left the room door 
open, turned out the light and was soon sound 
asleep. 

"Some time in the early hours of the morn- 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 103 

ing I awoke with an indescribable feeling. I / 
was suddenly wide awake — without the slightest 
traces of sleep ; yet I did not know how I awoke ; 
and had not any recollection of waking. But 
there I was wide awake, and staring up at the 
ceiling with wide-open eyes. My right hand 
was hanging over the side of the bed ; so that it 
fell outwards, into the room. Imagine my hor- 
ror, then, in feeling a hand suddenly grasp my 
hand, and I felt distinctly that it was minus the 
middle -finger. The hand was icy cold, and of a 
peculiar hardness. I hung on to the hand, how- 
ever, determined to go to the bottom of the af- 
fair. I gripped tightly ; and still retained the 
hand in my grip. Bending over, I stretched out 
my left hand, and, with the fingers of that hand, 
felt over the hand and wrist I was holding. I 
then commenced to trace it up the arm. I had 
about reached the elbow — or a little below — 
when the arm suddenly ended — came to nothing ; 
was no more ! Yet the hand in mine was as solid 
as ever. This gave me such a shock that I let go 
the hand I was holding, and sank back onto my 
pillows. Then terror took possession of me ; and 
I do not know what happened later. I only 
know that I had brain fever, which laid me low 
for several weeks. The occurrence has never 
been explained." 



104 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

THE APPARITION OF THE RADIANT BOY 

The following is a famous case, well-known 
as the "Apparition of the Radiant Boy." It was 
seen by the Marquis of Londonderry, and fre- 
quently spoken of by him afterwards. 

At the time of the appearance, Lord London- 
derry was on a visit to a friend in the North of 
Ireland. The apartment assigned to him was 
one calculated to foster the belief in ghosts, 
because of its richly carved paneling — its huge 
fireplace, looking like the open entrance into a 
tomb — and the vast, ponderous draperies that 
hung in thick folds around the room. 

Lord Londonderry examined his chamber; he 
made himself acquainted with the forms and 
faces of the ancient possessors of the mansion, 
whose portraits hung around the room. Then, 
after dismissing his valet, he retired to bed. 

His candles had not long been extinguished 
when he perceived a light gleaming on the dra- 
peries of the lofty canopies over his head. Con- 
scious that there was no fire in the grate — that 
the curtains were closed — that the chamber had 
been in perfect darkness but a few minutes be- 
fore, he supposed that some intruder must have 
accidentally entered his apartment; and, turn- 
ing hastily around to the side from which the 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 105 

light proceeded, saw, to his infinite astonish- 
ment, not the form of a human visitor, but the 
figure of a fair boy, who seemed to be garmented 
in rays of mild and tempered glory, which 
beamed palely from his slender form, like the 
faint light of the declining moon and rendered 
the objects nearest to him dimly and indis- 
tinctly visible. The spirit stood but a short dis- 
tance from the side of the bed. 

Certain that his own faculties were not de- 
ceiving him, Lord Londonderry got up and 
moved towards the figure. It retreated before 
him; as he slowly advanced, and with equal 
pace, slowly retired. It entered the gloomy arch 
of the capacious chimney, and then sank into 
the earth. Lord Londonderry returned to his 
bed, but not to rest; his mind was harassed by 
the consideration of the extraordinary event 
which had occurred to him. Was it real? Was 
it the work of imagination? Was it the result 
of imposture? It was all incomprehensible. 

He resolved in the morning not to mention the 
appearance till he should have well observed the 
manners and countenances of the family ; he was 
conscious that, if any deception had been prac- 
tised, its authors would be too delighted with 
their success to conceal the vanity of their 
triumph. 



106 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

When the guests assembled at the breakfast 
table, the eye of Lord Londonderry searched in 
vain for latent smiles — those conscious looks — 
that silent communication between the parties, 
by which the authors of such domestic conspir- 
acies are generally betrayed. Everything, ap- 
parently, proceeded in its ordinary course. At 
last the hero of the tale felt bound to mention 
the occurence of the night. 

At its conclusion, his host said : "The circum- 
stances which you have just recounted appear 
very extraordinary to those who have not long 
been inmates of my dwelling; and are not con- 
versant with the legends of my family; and to 
those who are, the event which has happened 
will only serve as the corroboration of an old 
tradition that has long been related of the apart- 
ment in which you slept. You have seen the 
'Radiant Boy'; be content — it is an omen of 
prosperous fortunes. I would rather that this 
subject should not be mentioned." And here 
the affair ended. 

fisher's ghost 

The following incident comes from Australia, 
and is well-known in that part of the world. It 
is usually known as "Fisher's Ghost," and is to 
the following effect: 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 10? 

"A number of years ago, a free settler, named 
John Fisher, who had long successfully culti- 
vated a grant of land in a remote district, and 
who was known to be possessed of a considerable 
sum of money, had been missing for some time 
after having visited the nearest market town, 
whither he had been in the habit of repairing 
with cattle and produce for sale. 

"An inquiry was instituted by his acquaint- 
ances; but his head servant, or rather his as- 
sistant on the farm — an ex-convict, who had 
lived many years with him in that situation — 
declared that his master had left the colony for 
some time on business, and that he expected him 
to return in a few months. As this man was 
generally known as Fisher's confidential serv- 
ant, his assertion was believed — though some ex- 
pressed surprise at the settler's abrupt and clan- 
destine departure ; for his character was good in 
every w T ay. The 'month's wonder' soon sub- 
sided, however, and Fisher was forgotten. His 
assistant, meanwhile, managed the farm, bought 
and sold, and spent money freely. If ques- 
tioned, which was but rarely, he would express 
his surprise at his master's delay, and pretend 
to expect him daily. 

"A few months after he had been first missed, 
a neighbouring settler, who was returning late; 



108 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

on Saturday night from the market town, had 
occasion to pass within half a mile of Fisher's 
house. As he was riding by the fence which 
separated the farm from the high road, he dis- 
tinctly saw the figure of a man seated on the 
railing, and at once recognized the form and 
features of his lost neighbor. 

"He instantly stopped and called to him by 
name; but the figure descended from the rail- 
ing, and pointing appealingly toward the house, 
walked slowly across the field in that direction. 
The settler, having lost sight of him in the 
gloom, proceeded on his journey, and informed 
his family and neighbors that he had seen Fisher 
and spoken to him. On inquiry, however, 
Fisher's assistant said that he had not arrived, 
and affected to laugh at the settler's story — in- 
sinuating that he had probably drunk too freely 
at the market. 

"The neighbors w^ere, however, not satisfied. 
The strange appearance of Fisher, sitting on the 
rail and pointing, with so much meaning, toward 
his own house aroused their suspicions, and they 
Insisted upon a strict and immediate investiga- 
tion by the police. 

"The party of investigators took with them an 
old and clever native. They had not proceeded 
far in the underbrush when they discovered a 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 109 

log, on which was a dark brown stain. This the 
native examined, and at once declared it to be 
'white mean's blood/ He then, without hesita- 
tion, set off at a full run, toward a pond not far 
from the house. 

"He ran backwards and forwards about the 
pond, like a dog on the scent; and finally, bor- 
rowing a ram-rod from one of the settlers, ran it 
into the earth. He did this in one or two places ; 
and finally said: 'White man here/ 

"The spot was immediately dug up, and a 
corpse, identified as that of Fisher, was discov- 
ered, its skull fractured, and evidently many 
weeks buried. 

"The guilty assistant was immediately ar- 
rested, and tried at Sydney, on circumstantial 
evidence alone — strong enough, however, to con- 
vict him, in spite of his self-possession, and pro- 
testations of innocence. He was sentenced to 
death; and, previous to his execution, made an 
ample confession of his guilt." 



HARRIET HOSMER'S VISION 

Lydia Maria Child relates the following inter- 
esting narrative: 

"When Harriet Hosmer, the sculptor, visited 



110 TKUE GHOST STORIES 

her native country a few years ago, I had an in- 
terview with her, during which our conversation 
happened to turn on dreams and visions. 

" 'I have had some experience in that way/ 
said she. 'Let me tell you a singular circum- 
stance that happened to me in Rome. An Ital- 
ian girl named Rosa was in my employ for a 
long time, but was finally obliged to return to 
her mother on account of confirmed ill-health. 
We were mutally sorry to part, for we liked each 
other. When I took my customary exercise on 
horseback, I frequently called to see her. On 
one of these occasions, I found her brighter 
than I had seen her for some time past. I had 
long relinquished hopes of her recovery, but 
there was nothing in her appearance that gave 
the appearance of immediate danger. I left her 
with the expectation of calling to see her again 
many times. During the remainder of the day, I 
was busy in my studio, and I do not recollect 
that Rosa was in my thoughts after I had parted 
from her. I retired to rest in good health, and 
in a quiet frame of mind. But I woke from a 
sound sleep with the oppressive feeling that 
someone was in the room. I wondered at the 
sensation, for it was entirely new to me ; but in 
vain I tried to dispel it. I peered beyond the 
curtains of my bed but could distinguish no ob- 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 111 

jects in the darkness. Trying to gather my 
thoughts I reflected that the door was locked, 
and that I had put the key under my bolster. 
I felt for it and found it where I had placed it. 
I said to myself that I had probably had some 
ugly dream, and had waked with a vague im- 
pression of it still on my mind.. Reasoning thus, 
I arranged myself comfortably for another nap. 

" 'I am habitually a good sleeper and a 
stranger to fear, but do what I would, the idea 
still haunted me that someone was in the room. 
Finding it impossible to sleep, I longed for day- 
light to dawn, that I might rise and pursue my 
customary avocation. It was not long before I 
was able dimly to distinguish the furniture in 
my room, and, soon after, to hear familiar noises 
of servants opening windows and doors. An old 
clock with ringing vibration, proclaimed the 
hour. I counted one, two, three, four, five, and 
resolved to rise immediately. My bed was par- 
tially screened by a long curtain looped up at 
one side. As I raised my head from the pillow, 
Rosa looked inside the curtain, and smiled at 
me. The idea of anything supernatural did not 
occur to me. I was simply surprised and ex- 
claimed: "Why, Rosa! How came you here 
when you are so ill?' 

" 'In the old familiar tone to which I was so 



112 TKUE GHOST STORIES 

much accustomed, a voice replied, 'I am well 
now.' 

" With no other thought but that of greeting 
her joyfully, I sprang out of bed. There was no 
Rosa there! When I became convinced that 
there was no one in the room but myself, I rec- 
ollected the fact that my door was locked, and 
thought I must have seen a vision. 

" 'At the breakfast table, I said to the old 
lady with whom I boarded: "Rosa is dead." I 
then summoned a messenger and sent him to in- 
quire how Rosa was. He returned with the an- 
swer that she died that morning at 5 o'clock." 

"I wrote the story as Miss Hosmer told it to 
me, and after I had shown it to her, I asked her 
if she had any objection to its being published 
without suppression of names. She replied: 
'You have reported the story of Rosa correctly. 
Make what use you please of it. You cannot 
think it more interesting or unaccountable than 
I do myself.' " 

THE APPARITION OF THE MURDERED BOY 

At the commencement of the French Revolu- 
tion, Lady Pennyman and her two daughters 
and her friend, Mrs. Atkins, retired to Lisle, 
where they had hired a large and handsome 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 113 

house. A few weeks after taking possession, the 
housekeeper, with many apologies for being 
obliged to mention anything that might appear 
so idle and absurd, came to the apartment in 
which her mistress was sitting, and said that 
two of the servants who had accompanied her 
ladyship from England had that morning given 
warning, and expressed a determination of quit- 
ting her ladyship's service, on account of the 
mysterious noises by which they had been night 
after night disturbed and terrified. The room 
from which the sounds wxre supposed to have 
proceeded was at a distance from Lady Penny- 
man's apartments, and immediately over those 
that were occupied by the servants. To quiet 
the alarm Lady Pennyman resolved on leaving 
her own chamber for a time and establishing 
herself in the one which had been lately occu- 
pied by the domestics. 

The room above was a long, spacious one, 
which appeared to have been for a long time de- 
serted. In the center of the chamber was a 
large iron cage. It was said that the late pro- 
prietor of the house — a young man of enormous 
wealth — had in his minority been confined in 
this cage by his uncle and guardian and starved 
to death. 

On the first night or two of Lady Pennymair s 



114 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

being established in her new apartment, she met 
with no interruption. This quiet, however, was 
of very short duration. One night she was 
awakened from her sleep by a slow and heavy 
step pacing the chamber overhead. It contin- 
ued to move backwards and forwards for nearly 
an hour. There were more complaints from the 
housekeeper, no servants would remain. Lady 
Pennyman began herself to be alarmed. She re- 
quested the advice of Mrs. Atkins — a woman de- 
void of every kind of superstitious fear, and of 
tried courage. Mrs. Atkins determined to make 
the Cage room itself her sleeping quarters. A 
bed was accordingly placed in the apartment, 
and Mrs. Atkins retired to rest attended by her 
favorite spaniel — saying, as she bade them all 
good-night, "I and my dog are able to compete 
with a myriad of ghosts." 

Mrs. Atkins examined the chamber in every 
imaginable direction; she sounded every panel 
of the wainscot to prove there was no hollow- 
ness that might argue a concealed passage ; and 
having securely bolted the door of the room, 
retired to rest, confident that she was secure 
against every material visitor, and totally in- 
credulous of the airy encroachments of spiritual 
beings. She had only been asleep a few min- 
utes, when her dog, which lay by her bedside, 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 115 

leaped, howling and terrified, on the bed. The 
bolted door of the chamber slowly opened and 
a pale, thin, sickly youth came in, cast his eyes 
mildly toward her, walked up to the iron cage 
in the middle of the room, and then leaned in 
the melancholy attitude of one revolving in his 
mind the sorrows of a cheerless and unblest ex- 
istence. After a while he again withdrew, and 
retired by the way he entered. 

Mrs. Atkins, on witnessing his departure, felt 
the return of her resolution. She persuaded her- 
self to believe the figure the work of some skill- 
ful imposter, and she determined on following 
its footsteps. She took up her lamp and has- 
tened to the door. To her infinite surprise, she 
discovered it to be fastened, as she had herself 
left it on retiring to bed. On withdrawing the 
bolt, and opening the door, she saw the back of 
the youth descending the staircase. She fol- 
lowed till, on reaching the foot of the stairs, the 
form seemed to sink into the earth. 

The event was related to Lady Pennyman. 
She determined to remain no longer in her pres- 
ent habitation. Another residence was offered 
in the vicinity of Lisle, and this she took under 
the pretext that it was better suited to the size 
of her family. 



116 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

THE GHOST IN YELLOW CALICO 

The Rev. Elwyn Thomas, 35, Park Village 
East, N. W., London, has published a very re- 
markable experience of his own. It is as fol- 
lows: 

"Twelve years ago/' says the doctor, "I was 
the second minister of the Bryn Mawr Welsh 
Wesleyan Circuit, in the South Wales District. 
It was a beautiful evening in June when, after 
conducting the service at Llanyndir, I told the 
gentlemen with whom I generally stayed when 
preaching there, that three young friends had 
come to meet me from Crickhowell, and that I 
meant to accompany them back for about half 
a mile on their return journey, so would not be 
home before nine o'clock. 

"When I wished good-night to my friends it 
was about twenty minutes to nine but still light 
enough to see a good distance. The subject of 
our conversation all the way from the chapel 
until we parted was of a certain eccentric old 
character who then belonged to the Crickhowell 
church. I walked a little further down the road 
than I intended in order to hear the end of a 
very amusing story about him. Our conversa- 
tion had no reference whatever to ghosts. Per- 
sonally I was a strong disbeliever in ghosts and 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 117 

invariably ridiculed anyone whom I thought su- 
perstitious enough to believe in them. 

"When I had walked about a hundred yards 
away from my friends, after parting from them, 
I saw on the bank of the canal, what I thought 
at the moment was an old beggar. I couldn't 
help asking myself where this old man had come 
from. I had not seen him in going down the 
road. I turned round quite unconcernedly to 
have another look at him, and had no sooner 
done so than I saw, within half a yard of me one 
of the most remarkable and startling sights I 
hope it will ever be my lot to see. Almost on a 
level with my own face, I saw that of an old 
man, over every feature of which the putty col- 
ored skin was drawn tightly, except the fore- 
head which was lined with deep wrinkles. The 
lips were extremely thin and appeared perfectly 
bloodless. The toothless mouth stood half open. 
The cheeks were hollow and sunken like those of 
a corpse, and the eyes which seemed far back in 
the middle of the head, were unnaturally lu- 
minous and piercing. The terrible object was 
wrapped in two bands of old yellow calico, one 
of which was drawn under the chin, and over 
the cheeks and tied at the top of the head, the 
other was drawn round the top of the wrinkled 
forehead and fastened at the back of the head. 



118 TKUE GHOST STOEIES 

So deep and indelible an impression it made on 
my mind, that, were I an artist, I could paint 
that face to-day. 

"What I have thus tried to describe in many 
words, I saw at a glance. Acting on the impulse 
of the moment, I turned my face toward the 
village and ran away from the horrible vision 
with all my might for about sixty yards. I then 
stopped and turned around to see how far I had 
distanced it, and to my unspeakable horror, 
there it was still face to face with me as if I had 
not moved an inch. I grasped my umbrella and 
raised it to strike him, and you can imagine my 
feelings when I could see nothing between the 
face and the ground, except an irregular column 
of intense darkness, through which my umbrella 
passed as a stick goes through water ! 

"I am sorry to say that I took to my heels 
with increasing speed. A little further than the 
space of this second encounter, the road which 
led to my host's house branched off the main 
road. Having gone two or three yards down 
this branch road, I turned around again. He 
had not followed me after I left the main road, 
but I could see the horribly fascinating face 
quite as plainly as when it was close by. It 
stood for a few minutes looking intently at me 
from the center of the main road. I then real- 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 119 

ized fully that it was not a human being in flesh 
and blood ; and, with every vestige of fear gone, 
I quickly walked toward it to put my ques- 
tions. But I was disappointed, for, no sooner 
had I made toward it, than it began to move 
slowly down the road keeping the same distance 
above it until it reached the churchyard wall ; it 
then crossed the road and disappeared near 
where the yew tree stood inside. The moment 
it disappeared, I became unconscious. Two 
hours later I came to myself and I made my way 
slowly to my home. I could not say a word to 
explain what had happened, though I tried sev- 
eral times. It was five o'clock in the morning 
when I regained my power of speech. The 
whole of the following week I was laid up with 
a nervous prostration. 

"My host, after questioning me closely, told 
me that fifteen years before that time an old re- 
cluse of eccentric character, answering in every 
detail to my description (yellow calicoes, bands, 
and all) lived in a house whose ruins still stand 
close by where I saw the face disappear." 



120 TRUE GHOST STORIES 



CHAPTER III 

MORE PHANTASMS OF THE DEAD — II. 

The cases included in this chapter are also 
very well authenticated — some of them being 
longer and more detailed than those included in 
the last chapter. I shall begin with a group of 
so-called "Pact" Cases — cases, that is, in which 
a Pact or Agreement was made before death — 
to appear after death, if possible; when that 
promise seems to have been kept. The first case 
of this character is short, and merely illustra- 
tive of the kind of ghostly phenomena to be ex- 
pected in cases of this nature. The latter cases 
are better attested. I give first the case of the 
Marquis of Rambouillet. 

COMPACTS TO APPEAR AFTER DEATH 

The story of the Marquis of Rambouillet's ap- 
pearing after his death to his cousin, the Mar- 
quis de Precy, is well authenticated. These two 
noblemen, talking one day concerning the af- 
fairs of the next world, in a manner which 



TKUE GHOST STORIES 121 

showed they did not believe much about it, en- 
tered into an agreement that the first who died 
should come and give intelligence to the other. 

Soon afterwards the Marquis of Rambouillet 
set out for Flanders, which was then the seat* of 
war, and the Marquis de Precy remained in 
Paris, being ill of a violent fever. About six 
weeks after, early one morning, he heard some- 
one draw the curtains of his bed, and turning to 
see who it was, discovered the Marquis of Ram- 
bouillet in a buff coat and boots. He instantly 
got out of bed, and attempted to shake hands 
with his friend, but Rambouillet drew back, and 
told him he had only come to perform the prom- 
ise he had formerly made; that nothing was 
more certain than another life ; and that he earn- 
estly advised him to alter his mode of life, for 
in the first battle he would be engaged in, he, 
would certainly fall. 

Precy made a fresh attempt to touch his 
friend, but he immediately withdrew. Precy lay 
upon his bed wondering upon the strangeness of 
the circumstances for some time, when he saw 
the same appearance re-enter the apartment. 
Rambouillet, finding that Precy still disbelieved 
what he was told, showed him the wound of 
which he had died, and from which the blood 
still seemed to flow. 



122 TEUE GHOST STOEIES 

Soon after this, Precy received a confirmation 
of Bambouillet's death, and was killed himself, 
according to the prediction, in the civil wars, 
at the battle of Faubourg St. Antoine. 

LOED BROUGHAM'S VISION 

The promise to appear was given and kept in 
the case of the apparition seen by Lord 
Brougham. 

The story is given as follows in the first vol- 
ume of "Lord Brougham's Memoirs" : 

"A most remarkable thing happened to me, so 
remarkable that I must tell the story from the 
beginning. After I left the High School I went 

with G , my most intimate friend, to attend 

the classes in the University. There was no di- 
vinity class, but we frequently in our walks dis- 
cussed many grave subjects — among others the 
immortality of the soul and a future state. This 
question, and the possibility of the dead appear- 
ing to the living, were the subject of much spec- 
ulation, and we actually committed the folly of 
drawing up an agreement, written with our 
blood, to the effect that whichever of us died the 
first should appear to the other, and thus solve 
any doubts we had entertained of the 'life after 
death.' After we had finished our classes at the 



TEUE GHOST STORIES 122 

College, G went to India, having got an ap- 
pointment there in the Civil Service. He sel- 
dom wrote to me, and after a lapse of a few 
years I had nearly forgotten his existence. . . . 
One day I had taken, as I have said, a warm 
bath, and, while lying in it and enjoying the com- 
fort of the heat, I turned my head round, look- 
ing towards the chair on which I had deposited 
my clothes, as I was about to get out of the bath. 

On the chair sat G , looking calmly at me! 

How I got out of the bath I know not; but on 
recovering my senses, I found myself sprawling 
on the floor. The apparition, or whatever it was 
that had taken the likeness of G , had dis- 
appeared. This vision had produced such a 
shock that I had no inclination to talk about it, 
or to speak about it even to Stewart, but the 
impression it made upon me was too vivid to be 
easily forgotten, and so strongly was I affected 
by it that I have here written down the whole 
history, with the date, December 19th, and all 
the particulars, as they are now fresh before me. 
No doubt I had fallen asleep, and that the ap- 
parition presented so distinctly before my eyes 
was a dream I cannot for a moment doubt; yet 
for years I had had no communication with 

G , nor had there been anything to recall 

him to my recollection. Nothing had taken 



124 TEUE GHOST STOKIES 

place concerning our Swedish, travels connected 
with G , or with India, or with anything re- 
lating to him, or to any member of his family. 
I recollected quickly enough our old discussion, 
and the bargain we had made. I could not dis- 
charge from my mi 1 ;_ pression that G 

must have died, and that his appearance to me 
was to be received by me as a proof of a future 
state. This was on December 19th, 1799. " 

In October, 1862, Lord Brougham added as a 
Postscript : 

"I have just been copying out from my Jour- 
nal the account of this strange dream. Certis- 
sima mortis imago! And now to finish the story 
begun about sixty years ago : Soon after my re- 
turn to Edinborough there arrived a letter from 

India announcing G ? s death, and stating 

that he died on December 19th. " 

Lord Brougham attempts to account for this 
vision by stating that it was probably a dream. 
But this is negatived by the fact that he was so 
startled by it as to scramble out of the bath in 
a great hurry — which would not be at all likely 
had it been a dream — for, as we know, nothing 
surprises us in dreams, or seems unlikely. And 
even granting that it were a dream, we still have 
the coincidence to account for. Why should 
Lord Brougham have dreamed this particular 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 125 

dream at the very moment his friend died? 
That fact has yet to be accounted for. 

THE TYRONE GHOST 

This is also known as the Beresford Ghost, 
and is one of the most famous cases of its kind 
on record. The account, as herein given, is that 
supplied by the granddaughter of Lady Beres- 
ford, to whom the experience came; and hence 
may be considered as accurate as it can be made. 
It furnishes us with a definite example of a 
"ghost that touches/' and leaves a permanent 
mark of its visit, ever afterwards. Here is the 
account : 

"In the month of October, 1693, Sir Tristram 
and Lady Beresford went on a visit to her sis- 
ter, Lady Macgill, at Gill Hall, now the seat of 
Lord Clanwilliam. . . . One morning Sir Tris- 
tram arose early, leaving Lady Beresford asleep, 
and went out for a walk before breakfast. 
When his wife joined the table very late, her ap- 
pearance and the embarrassment of her manner 
attracted general attention, especially that of 
her husband. He made anxious inquiries as to 
her health, and asked her apart what had hap- 
pened to her wrist, which was tied up with black 
ribbon tightly bound round it. She earnestly 



126 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

entreated him not to inquire more then, or there- 
after, as to the cause of her wearing or contin- 
uing afterwards to wear that ribbon; 'for,' she 
added, 'you will never see me without it.' He 
replied: 'Since you urge it so vehemently, I 
promise you not to inquire more about it.' 

"After completing her hurried breakfast, she 
made inquiries as to whether the post had yet 
arrived. It had not yet come in, and Sir Tris- 
tram asked : 'Why are you so particularly 
eager about letters to-day?' 'Because I expect 
to hear of Lord Tyrone's death, which took place 
on Tuesday.' 'Well,' remarked Sir Tristram, 
*I never put you down for a superstitious per- 
son, but I suppose that some idle dream has dis- 
turbed you.' Shortly after, the servant brought 
in the letters; one was sealed with black wax. 
'It is as I expected,' she cried, 'he is dead.' The 
letter was from Lord Tyrone's steward to inform 
them that his master had died in Dublin, on 
Tuesday, 14 October, at 4 p.m. Sir Tristram 
endeavored to console her, and begged her to re- 
strain her grief, when she assured him that she 
felt relieved and easier, now that she knew the 
actual fact. She added, 'I can now give you a 
most satisfactory piece of intelligence, viz., that 
I am with child, and that it will be a boy.' A 
son was born the following July. 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 127 

"On her forty-seventh birthday, Lady Beres- 
ford summoned her children to her side, and 
said to them : 'I have something of deep import- 
ance to communicate to you, my dear children, 
before I die. You are no strangers to the inti- 
macy and affection which subsisted in early life 
between Lord Tyrone and myself. . . . We had 
made a solemn promise to one another, that 
whichever died first should, if permitted, appear 
to the other. . . . One night, years after this 
interchange of promises, I was sleeping with 
your father at Gill Hall, when I suddenly awoke 
and discovered Lord Tyrone sitting visibly by 
the side of the bed. I screamed out and vainly 
tried to arouse Sir Tristram. "Tell me/' I said, 
"Lord Tyrone, why and wiierefore are you here 
at this time of the night ?" "Have you then for- 
gotten our promises to each other, pledged in 
early life? I died on Tuesday, at 4 o'clock. I 
have been permitted thus to appear. ... I am 
also suffered to inform you that you are with 
child, and will produce a son, who will marry 
an heiress ; that Sir Tristram will not live long, 
that you will marry again, and you will die in 
your forty-seventh year." I begged from him 
some convincing sign or proof so that when the 
morning came I might rely upon it, and that it 
was not the phantom of my imagination. He 



128 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

caused the hangings of the bed to be drawn in 
an unusual way and impossible manner through 
an iron hook. I still was not satisfied, when he 
wrote his signature in my pocketbook. I 
wanted, however, more substantial proof of his 
visit, when he laid his hand, which was cold as 
marble, on my wrist ; the sinews shrunk up, the 
nerves withered at the touch. "Now," he said, 
"let no mortal eye while you live ever see that 
wrist," and vanished. While I was conversing 
with him my thoughts were calm, but as soon 
as he disappeared I felt chilled with horror and 
dismay, a cold sweat came over me, and I again 
endeavored, but vainly, to aw aken Sir Tristram ; 
a flood of tears came to my relief, and I fell 
asleep. ... 

"That year Lady Beresford died. On her 
deathbed, Lady Riverson unbound the black rib- 
bon and found the wrist exactly as Lady Beres- 
ford had described it — every nerve withered, 
every sinew shrunk. . . . ' 

"dead or alive" 

In the following case the ghost kept its prom- 
ise to appear — doing so, to all appearances, in 
spite of great obstacles. The incident is re- 
ported in Mr. W. T. Stead's Real Ghost Stories, 
pp. 205-8: 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 129 

"The following incident occurred to me some 
years ago, and all the details can be substan- 
tiated. The date was August 26, 1867, at mid- 
night. I was then residing in the neighborhood 
of Hull, and held an appointment under the 
crown which necessitated my repairing thither 
every day for a few hours duty. My berth was 
almost a sinecure ; and I had for some time been 
engaged to a young north country heiress, it be- 
ing understood that on our marriage I should 
take her name and 'stand for the county' or 
rather for one of its divisions. 

"For her sake I had to break off a love affair, 
not of the most reputable order, with a girl in 
Hull. I will call her Louise. She was young, 
beautiful, and devoted to me. On the night of 
the 26th of August we took our last walk to- 
gether, and a few minutes before midnight 
paused on a wooden bridge running across a 
kind of canal, locally termed a 'drain.' We 
paused on the bridge, listening to the swirling 
of the current against the wooden piles, and 
waiting for the stroke of midnight to part for- 
ever. In the few minutes interval she repeated 
sotto voce, Longfellow's 'Bridge/ the words of 
which, 'I stood on the bridge at midnight/ 
seemed terribly appropriate. After nearly twen- 
ty-five years I can never hear that piece recited 



130 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

without feeling a deadly chill, and the whole 
scene of two souls in agony again rising before 
me. Well! Midnight struck and we parted; 
but Louise said : 'Grant me one f avor, the only 
one that I shall ever ask you on this earth; 
promise to meet me here twelve months from to- 
night at this same hour.' I demurred at first, 
thinking it would be bad for both of us, and 
only re-open partially-healed wounds. At last, 
however, I consented, saying, 'Well, I will come 
if I am alive.' But she said, 'Say alive or dead/ 
I said, 'Very well, then, we will meet, dead or 
alive/ 

"The next year I was on the spot a few min- 
utes before the time ; and, punctual to the stroke 
of midnight, Louise arrived. By this time I had 
begun to regret the arrangement I had made; 
but it was of too solemn a nature to put aside. 
I therefore kept the appointment; but said that 
I did not care to renew the compact. Louise, 
however, persuaded me to renew it for one more 
year; and I consented, much against my will; 
and we again left each other, repeating the same 
formula, 'Dead or Alive/ 

"The next y?ar after passed rapidly until the 
first week in July, when I was shot dangerously 
in the thigh by a fisherman named Thomas Piles, 
of Hull, a reputed smuggler. A party of four 



TEUE GHOST STORIES 131 

of us had hired his ten-ton yawl to go yachting 
round the Yorkshire coast, and amuse ourselves 
by shooting sea-birds amongst the millions of 
them at Flamborough Head. The third or 
fourth day out I was shot in the right thigh by 
the skipper Piles; and the day after, one and a 
quarter ounce of number 2 shot were cut out 
therefrom by the coastguard surgeon at Brid- 
lington Quay (whose name I forget for the mo- 
ment), assisted by Dr. Alexander Mackey, at 
the Black Lion hotel. The affair was in all the 
papers at the time, about a column of it appear- 
ing in the Eastern Morning News, of Hull. 

"As soon as I was able to be removed (two or 
three weeks) I was taken home, where Dr. Mel- 
burne King, of Hull, attended me. The day — 
and the night — (the 26th of August) came. I 
was then unable to walk without crutches, and 
that for only a short distance, so had to be 
wheeled about in a Bath chair. The distance to 
the trysing place being rather long, and the 
time and the circumstances being very peculiar, 
I did not avail myself of the services of my us- 
ual attendant, but specially retained an old ser- 
vant of the family, who frequently did confiden- 
tial commissions for me, and who knew Miss 
Louise well. We set forth 'without beat of 
drum' and arrived at the bridge about a few 



132 TEUE GHOST STORIES 

minutes to midnight. I remember that it was a 
brilliant starlight night, but I do not think that 
there was any moon — at all events, at that hour. 
'Old Bob/ as he was always affectionately called, 
wheeled me to the bridge, helped me out of the 
Bath chair, and gave me my crutch. I walked 
on to the bridge, and leaned my back against 
the white painted rail top, then lighted my briar- 
root, and had a comfortable smoke. 

"I was very much annoyed that I had al- 
lowed myself to be persuaded to come a second 
time, and determined to tell Louise positively 
that this should be our last meeting. Besides, 
now, I did not consider it fair to Miss K., with 
whom I was again 'negotiating.' So, if any- 
thing, it was in rather a sulky frame of mind 
that I awaited Louise. Just as the quarters be- 
fore the hour began to chime I distinctly heard 
the 'clink, clink' of the little brass heels, which 
she always wore, sounding on the long flagged 
causeway, leading for 200 yards up to the bridge. 
As she got nearer, I could see her pass lamp af- 
ter lamp in rapid succession, while the strokes 
of the large clock at Hull resounded through 
the stilly night. 

"At last the patter, patter of the tiny feet 
sounded on the woodwork of the bridge, and I 
saw her distinctly pass under the lamp at my 



TEUE GHOST STORIES 133 

side. When she got close to me I saw that she 
had neither hat nor cape on, and concluded that 
she had taken a cab at the further end of the 
flagged causeway, and (it being a very warm 
night) had left her wraps in the cab, and, for 
purposes of effect, had come the short distance 
in evening dress. 

" 'Clink, clink/ went the brass heels, and she 
seemed about passing me, when I suddenly, 
urged by an impulse of affection, stretched out 
my arms to receive her. She passed through 
them, intangible, impalpable, and as she looked 
at me I distinctly saw her lips move, and form 
the words 'Dead or Alive.' I even heard the 
words, but not with my outward ears, with 
something else, some other sense — what, I know 
not. I felt startled, surprised, but not afraid, 
until a moment afterwards, when I felt, but 
could not see, some other presence following her. 
I could feel, though I could not hear, the heavy, 
clumsy thud of feet following her ; and my blood 
seemed turned to ice. Eecovering myself with 
an effort, I shouted out to Old Bob, who was 
safely ensconsed with the Bath chair in a nook 
out of sight round the corner : 'Bob, who passed 
you just now?' In an instant the old Yorkshire- 
man was by my side. 'Ne'er a one passed me, 
sir.' 'Nonsense, Bob,' I replied, 'I told you that 



134 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

I was coming to meet Miss Louise, and she just 
passed me on the bridge, and must have passed 
you, because there is no where else she could go. 
You don't mean to tell me you didn't see her?' 
The old man replied solemnly: 'Maister Rob, 
there's something uncanny about it. I heered 
her come on the bridge, and off it, and I knaw 
them clickety heels onywhere! but I'm domned, 
sir, if she passed me ! I'm thinking we'd better 
gang.' And 'gang' we did; and it was the small 
hours of the morning (getting daylight) before 
we left off talking over the affair, and went to 
bed. 

"The next day I made inquiries from Louise's 
family about her, and ascertained that she had 
died in Liverpool three months previously, being 
apparently delirious for a few hours before her 
death, and, our parting compact evidently 
weighing on her mind, as she kept repeating, 
'Dead or Alive — shall I be there?' — to the utter 
bewilderment of her friends, who could not di- 
vine her meaning — being, of course, entirely un- 
aware of our agreement." 



This completes the examples of the so-called 
"Pact" cases. In the following example, the 
phantasmal form conveyed a piece of informa- 



TBUE GHOST STORIES 135 

tion to the percipient which he could not well 
have known by any normal means. 

THE SCRATCH ON THE CHEEK 

The case appeared in the Proceedings of the 
Amer. S. P. R., and the high character of the 
witnesses was vouched for by Dr. Hodgson and 
Prof. Royce. It is to the following effect: 

"January 11, 1888. 

"Sir: Replying to your recently published 
request for actual occurrences of psychical phe- 
nomena, I respectively submit the following re- 
markable occurrence to the consideration of 
your distinguished Society, with the assurance 
that the event made a more powerful impression 
upon my mind than the combined incidents of 
my whole life. ... I was never in better health 
or possessed a clearer head and mind than at the 
time the incident occurred. 

"In 1867, my only sister, a young lady of 
eighteen years, died suddenly of cholera, in St. 
Louis, Mo. My attachment for her was very 
strong, and the blow a severe one to me. A 
year or so after her death, I became a commer- 
cial traveller, and it was in 1876, while on one 
of my Western trips that the event occurred. 

"I had 'drummed' the city of St. Joseph, Mo., 



136 TKTJE GHOST STORIES 

and had gone to my room at the Pacific House 
to send in my orders, which were unusually 
large ones, so that I was in a very happy frame 
of mind indeed. My thoughts, of course, were 
about these orders, knowing how pleased my 
house would be at my success. I had not been 
thinking of my late sister, or in any manner re- 
flecting on the past. The hour was high noon, 
and the sun was shining cheerfully into my 
room. While busy smoking a cigar, and writ- 
ing out my orders, I suddenly became conscious 
that some one was sitting on my left, with one 
arm resting on the table. Quick as a flash I 
turned, and distinctly saw the form of my dead 
sister, and for a brief second or two looked her 
squarely in the face; and so sure was I that it 
was she, that I sprang forward in delight, call- 
ing her by name, and, as I did so, the apparition 
instantly vanished. Naturally I was startled 
and dumbfounded, almost doubting my senses; 
but the cigar in my mouth, and pen in hand, 
with the ink still moist on my letter, I satisfied 
myself I had not been dreaming and was still 
awake. I was near enough to touch her, had it 
been a physical possibility, and noted her fea- 
tures, expression, and details of dress, etc. She 
appeared as if alive. Her eyes looked kindly 
and perfectly naturally into mine. Her skin 



TEUE GHOST STOKIES 137 

was so perfectly life-like that I could see the 
glow or moisture in the surface, and, on the 
whole there was no change in her appearance, 
otherwise than when alive. 

"Now comes the most remarkable confirmation 
of my statement, which cannot be doubted by 
those who know what I state actually occurred. 
This visitation, or whatever you may call it, 
so impressed me that I took the next train 
home, and in the presence of my parents and 
others I related what had occurred. My father, 
a man of rare good sense and very practical, was 
inclined to ridicule me, as he saw how earnestly 
I believed what I stated; but he, too, was 
amazed when later on I told them of a bright 
red line or scratch on the right-hand side of 
my sister's face, which I distinctly had seen. 
When I mentioned this my mother rose tremb- 
ling to her feet and nearly fainted away, and as 
soon as she had sufficiently recovered her self- 
possession, with tears streaming down her face, 
she exclaimed that I had indeed seen my sister, 
as no living mortal but herself was aware of 
that scratch, which she had actually made while 
doing some little act of kindness after my sis- 
ter's death. She said she well remembered how 
pained she was to think she should have, unin- 
tentionally, marred the features of her dead 



138 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

daughter, and that, unknown to all, she had 
carefully obliterated all traces of the slight 
scratch with the aid of powder, etc., and that she 
had never mentioned it to a human being, from 
that day to this. . . . Yet I saw the scratch 
as bright as if just made. . . . " 

[Confirmatory statements were obtained from 
the narrator's father and brother; his mother 
having died in the interval.] 

A GHOST IN HAMPTON COURT 

Miss X. (Mrs. Hans Spoer) relates the fol- 
lowing interesting case, as occurring to herself, 
on a visit to the well-known Hampton Court. 
(Essays in Psychical Research, pp. 31-34) : 

"I recently found myself the guest of a lady 
occupying a pleasant suite of rooms in Hampton 
Court Palace. For obvious reasons I cannot 
specify the name of my hostess, the exact date of 
my visit, or the precise whereabouts of her apart- 
ment. 

"Of course I was familiar with the Hampton 
Court ghost legend. ... I examined the scene 
of the occurrences, and was allowed to ask 
questions at will. The ghost, I was told, visited 
habitually in a dozen different rooms — not, how- 
ever, in the bright, dainty drawing room in 
which we were chatting, and where it was difli- 



TEUE GHOST STOEIES 139 

cult to believe that we were discussing recent 
history. 

"As a matter of fact, it was very recent, in- 
deed. But a few nights earlier, in a certain 
small but cheerful bedroom, a little girl had 
been awakened out of her sleep by a visitant so 
dramatic that I wondered whether the child had 
possibly gone to sleep again, after her original 
fright, and dreamed the later and more sensa- 
tional part of the story. 

"My room was quaintly pretty, but somewhat 
peculiar in arrangement, and lighted only from 
the roof. I have seen 'ghosts' before, have slept 
for months together in haunted houses; and, 
though I find such visitants somewhat exciting, 
I cannot say that my prospects for the night 
filled me with any degree of apprehension. 

"At dinner and during the evening ghostly 
topics were avoided; there were other guests, 
and music and chat occupied us till 11 o'clock, 
when my hostess accompanied me to my room. 
I asked various questions as to my neighbours 
above and below, and the exact position of other 
members of the household, with a view to know- 
ing how to interpret any sounds which might 
occur. About a third of the ceiling of my room 
was skylight; the servant's bedroom being sit- 
uated over the remainder. Two sides of the 



140 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

room were bounded by a corridor, into which it 
opened; a third of the wall by the state apart- 
ments, while the fourth opened by folding doors 
upon a room for the time unoccupied ( except by 
a cat, asleep upon a chair) out of which there 
opened a door, leading by a secret passage to 
the bank of the river. 

"I ascertained that the folding doors were 
locked; moreover, a heavy table stood against 
them on the outer side, and a wardrobe on the 
inner. The bedstead was a small one, without 
curtains; indeed, the room contained no hang- 
ings whatever. The door into the room opened 
so nearly to the head of my bed that there was 
space only for a small table, upon whi^ T took 
care to place two long candles, and a plentiful 
supply of matches, being somewhat addicted to 
late and early reading. 

"I was tired, but a sense of duty demanded 
that I should not sleep through the 'witching 
hours/ so I sat up in bed, and gave my best at- 
tention to Lord Farrer's problem, " Shall We De- 
grade our Standard of Value?' in the current 
number of the National Review, and, on the 
principle of always trying to see both sides of a 
question, thought of several reasons why we 
should not, with the author, come to a negative 
conclusion. The matter did not, however, excite 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 141 

me to the pitch, of wakefulness ; and when I fin- 
ished the article, as the clock struck half-past 
one, I considered myself absolved from further 
responsibility, put out my lights, and was asleep 
before the next quarter sounded. 

"Nearly three hours later I was suddenly 
awakened from dreamless slumber by the sound 
of the opening of a door against which some 
piece of furniture was standing, in, as it seemed, 
the empty room to my right. I remembered the 
cat, and tried to conceive by what kind of 'ram- 
paging' she could contrive to be so noisy. A 
minute later there followed a thud apparently 
on this side of the folding doors, and too heavy 
for even the prize animals of my home circle, 
not to speak of a mongrel stray, newly adopted 
and not yet doing credit to her keep ! 'A dress 
fallen in the wardrobe/ was my next thought, 
and I stretched out my hand for the match-box, 
as a preliminary to enquiry. 

"I did not reach the matches. It seemed to 
me that a restraining hand was laid upon mine ; 
I withdrew it quickly, and gazed around me in 
the darkness. Some minutes passed in black- 
ness and silence. I had the sensation of a pres- 
ence in the room, and finally, mindful of the tra- 
dition that a ghost should be spoken to, I said 
gently: 'Is anyone there? Can I do anything 



142 TRUE GHOST STOEIES 

for you?' I remembered that the last person 
who entertained the ghost had said: 'Go away, 
I don't want you !' and I hoped that my visitor 
would admire my better manners and be respon- 
sive. However, there was no answer — no sound 
of any kind; and returning to my theory of the 
cat and the fallen dress, though nevertheless so 
far influenced by the recollection of those detain- 
ing fingers as not to attempt to strike a light, I 
rose and walked round my bed, keeping the right 
hand on the edge of the bedstead, while, with my 
left arm extended, I swept the surrounding 
space. As the room is small, I thus fairly well 
satisfied myself that it contained nothing un- 
usual. 

"I was, though somewhat perplexed, about to 
grant myself license to go to sleep again, when 
in the darkness before me there began to glow a 
soft light. I watched it increase in brightness 
and in extent. It seemed to radiate from a cen- 
tral point, which gradually took form and be- 
came a tall, slight woman, moving slowly across 
the room from the folding doors on my right. 
As she passed the foot of my bed I felt a slight 
vibration of the spring mattress. At the further 
corner she stopped, so that I had time to ob- 
serve her profile and general appearance. Her 
face was insipidly pretty ; that of a woman from 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 143 

thirty to thirty-five years of age, her figure 
slight, her dress of a soft dark material, having 
a full skirt and broad sash or soft waist-band 
tied high up, almost under her arms, a crossed 
or draped 'kerchief over the shoulders, sleeves 
which I noticed fitted very tight below the el- 
bow, and hair which was dressed so as not to lie 
flat to the head, either in curls or bows, I could 
not tell which. As she appeared to stand be- 
tween me and the light, I cannot speak with any 
certainty as to the color, but the dress, though 
dark, was, I think, not black. In spite of all 
this definiteness, I was, of course, conscious 
that the figure was unsubstantial, and I felt 
guilty of absurdity in asking once more: 'Will 
you let me help you? Can I be of use to you?' 

"My voice sounded preternaturally loud, but 
I felt no surprise at noticing that it produced 
no effect upon my visitor. She stood still for 
perhaps two minutes — though it is very difficult 
to estimate time on such occasions. She then 
raised her hands, which w^ere long and white, 
and held them before her as she sank upon her 
knees and slowly buried the face in her palms, 
in the attitude of prayer — when, quite suddenly, 
the light went out, and I was alone in the dark- 
ness. 

"I felt that the scene was ended, the curtain 



144 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

down, and had no hesitation in lighting the can- 
dle at my side. 

"I tried to examine the impression the vision 
conveyed. I felt that it was definitely that of 
reproach, yet of gentle resignation. There was 
no force, no passion ; I had seen a meek, sad wo- 
man who had succumbed. I began to turn over 
in my mind the illustrious names of former occu- 
pants of the chamber. I fixed on one — a bad 
man of the worst kind, a mad fool of that time 
of wickedness and folly, the Regency — I thought 
of the secret passage in the next room, and be- 
gan to weave an elaborate romance. 

" 'This will not do here and now/ I reflected, 
as the clock struck four; and, as an act of men- 
tal discipline, I returned to my National Re- 
view. ... I turned to Mr. Myers' article on 
'The Drift of Psychical Research/ which I had 
already seen. I read : 

"'..'. Where telepathy operates, many in- 
telligences may affect our own. Some of these 
are the minds of living persons, but some appear 
to be discarnate, to be spirits like ourselves, but 
released from the body, although still retaining 
much of the personality of earth. These spirits 
appear still to have some knowledge of our 
world, and to be in certain ways able to affect 
it' 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 145 

"Here was, so to speak, the text of my illus- 
tration. I had quite enough to think about — 
more than I needed for that occasion. I never 
heard the clock strike five ! 

"Let us try to examine this, a type of many 
ghost stories. 

"Elsewhere I have classified visions of per- 
sons, whether seen in the crystal or otherwise, 
as: 

"1. Visions of the living, clairvoyant or tele- 
pathic, usually accompanied by their own back- 
ground, or adapting themselves to mine. 

"2. Visions of the departed, having no ob- 
vious relations to time and space. 

"3. Visions which are more or less of the na- 
ture of pictures, such as those which I volunta- 
rily produce in the crystal from memory or im- 
agination, or which appear in the background of 
real persons as illustrative of their thoughts of 
history. This is very often the case when an im- 
pression reaches me in visual form from the 
mind of a friend who, it may be, imperfectly re- 
members or is imperfectly informed as to the 
form and color of the picture his mind conveys. 

"Again I emphasize the fact that I am specu- 
lating, not dogmatizing — that I am speaking 
from internal evidence, with no possibility of 



146 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

corroboration, and that I am perfectly aware 
that each reader must take this for what it 
seems to him worth. Such being the case, I ven- 
ture to classify the vision under Class III. 
Again, to borrow from Mr. Myers, I believe that 
what I saw may have been a telepathic impres- 
sion of the dreams (or I should prefer to say 
'thoughts') of the dead. If what I saw were 
indeed veridical or truth-telling — if my readers 
will agree to admit that what I saw was no mere 
illusion, or morbid hallucination, or imagination 
(taking the word in its commonly-accepted 
sense) — then I believe that my visitor was not 
a departed spirit, such as it has before now, 
perhaps, been my privilege to meet, but rather 
an image as such — just as the figure which, it 
may be, sits at my dining table is not really the 
friend whose visit a few hours later it an- 
nounces, but only a representation of him, hav- 
ing no objective existence apart from the truth 
of the information it conveys — a thought which 
is personal to the brain which thinks it. 

"I have already said that, preconceived no- 
tions apart, I had no impression of reality. I 
recognized that what I saw and felt was an ex- 
terminalization of impressions unconsciously re- 
ceived, possibly from some discarnate mind. . . " 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 147 

HALF-PAST ONE O'CLOCK 

The following case is in many ways classical. 
Mrs. Claughton, to whom the experience came, 
was a widowed lady, living in good social circles. 
The full account of her experience is to be found 
in the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical 
Research (Vol. XI., pp. 547-59), and contains 
statements and personal investigations by Dr. 
Ferrier, Andrew Lang, Mr. Myers and the Mar- 
quis of Bute as well as corroborative testimony 
from the Clerk at Meresby, Mrs. Claughtoivs 
governess, copies of letters, diaries, memoranda, 
etc. The whole case is very complicated and im- 
pressive; and embodies a combination of appa- 
rent spirit communication, clairvoyance, tele- 
pathy, precognition, apparitions, and supernor- 
mal dreams. The chief and most interesting ac- 
count is the statement made by Mrs. Claughton 
to the Marquis of Bute, and recorded by him as 
follows : 

"She was staying in 1893 with her two chil- 
dren at 6 Blake St., a house belonging to Mrs. 
Appleby, daughter of the late Mrs. Blackburn 
. . . but let to Mrs. Buckley. She had heard 
the house was haunted, and may have heard that 
the ghost was Mrs. Blackburn's. She had been 
told also that water was spilt on the floors inex- 



148 TKUE GHOST STOKIES 

plicably. They arrived on October 4th. About 
1.15 a.m., Monday, October 9th, Mrs. Claughton 
was in bed with one of her children, the other 
sleeping in the room. Mrs. Claughton had of- 
fered to be of any use she could to Miss Buckley, 
who had arrived from London on the Saturday, 
not feeling very well. She had been asleep, and 
was awakened by the footsteps of a person com- 
ing downstairs, whom she supposed to be a ser- 
vant coming to call her. The steps stopped at 
the door. The sounds were repeated twice more 
at the interval of a few moments. Mrs. Claugh- 
ton rose, lit the candle, and opened the door. 
There was no one there. She noticed the clock 
outside pointed to 1.20 a.m. She shut the door, 
got into bed, read, and, leaving the candle burn- 
ing, went to sleep. Woke up, finding the candle 
spluttering out. Heard a sound like a sigh. 
Saw a woman standing by the bed. She had a 
soft white shawl round the shoulders, held by 
the right hand towards the left shoulder, bend- 
ing slightly forwards. Mrs. Claughton thinks 
the hair was lightish brown, and the shawl 
partly over the head, but does not remember 
distinctly, and has no impression of the rest of 
the dress ; it was not grave-clothes. She said : 
'Follow me.' Mrs. Claughton rose, took the can- 
dle, and followed her out of the room, across the 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 149 

passage, and into the drawing-room. She had 
no recollection as to the opening of the doors. 
The house maid next day declared that the draw- 
ing-room door had been locked by her. On en- 
tering the drawing-room, Mrs. Claughton, find- 
ing the candle on the point of extinction, re- 
placed it by a pink one from the chiffonier near 
the door. The figure nearly at the end of the 
room, turned three-quarters round, said 'to-mor- 
row,' and disappeared. Mrs. Claughton re- 
turned to the bedroom, where she found her 
elder child (not the one in the bed) sitting up. 
It asked: 'Who is the lady in white?' Mrs. 
Claughton thinks she answered the child: 'It's 
only me — mother ; go to sleep,' or the like words, 
and hushed her to sleep in her arms. The baby 
remained fast asleep. She lit the gas and re- 
mained awake for some two hours, then put out 
the lights and went to sleep. Had no fear while 
seeing the figure, but was upset after seeing it. 
Would not be prepared to swear that she might 
not have walked in her sleep. Pink candle, 
partly burned, in her room in morning. Does 
not know if she took it burnt or new. 

"In the morning she spoke to Mr. Buckley, on 
whose advice she went to ask Dr. Ferrier as to 
the figure about 3 p.m. He and his wife said the 
description was like that of Mrs. Blackburn, 



150 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

whom Mrs. Claughton already suspected it to 
be. Thinks Dr. Ferrier already told her that 
Miss Blackburn (Mrs. Appleby) had seen her 
mother in the same house. Mrs. Claughton can- 
not recognize the photograph of Mrs. Blackburn 
shown to her by Mr. Y. (who got it from Mrs. 
M.). She says the figure seemed smaller, and 
the features were more pinched and attenuated, 
like those of a person in the last stages of con- 
sumption, which was also the general appear- 
ance. By his advice, Mr. Buckley put an elec- 
tric bell under Mrs. Claughton's pillow, commu- 
nicating with Miss Buckley's room, as Mrs. 
Claughton determined to sit up that night and 
watch. 

"That night Mrs. Claughton sat up dressed, 
with the gas burning. About 12 she partly un- 
dressed, put on a dressing gown, and lay down 
outside the bed, gas still burning, and fell 
asleep reading. Woke up and found the same 
woman as before, but the expression even more 
agitated. She bent over Mrs. Claughton and 
said: 'I have come, listen.' She then made a 
certain statement and asked Mrs. Claughton to 
do certain things. Mrs. Claughton said : 'Am I 
dreaming, or is it true?' The figure said some- 
thing like : 'If you doubt me, you will find that 
the date of my marriage was * * * ' (This was 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 151 

the date of the marriage, which took place in 
India, of Mrs. Blackburn to Mr. Blackburn, who 
is alive and married again. Mrs. Claughton 
first learned the corroboration of the date from 
Dr. Ferrier on the following Thursday). After 
this Mrs. Claughton saw a man standing on 
Mrs. B.'s left hand — tall, dark, well made, 
healthy, sixty years old, or more, ordinary man's 
day clothes, kind, good expression. A conversa- 
tion ensued between the three, in course of 
which man stated himself to be George Howard, 
buried in Meresby Churchyard (Mrs. Claugh- 
ton had never heard of Meresby or of George 
Howard) and gave the date of his marriage * * 
and death * * * [Entries of these dates seen by 
me in Mrs. Claughton's pocketbook, as torn out 
and lent to me. F. W. H. Myers.] He desired Mrs. 
Claughton to go to Meresby and verify these 
dates in the registration, and, if found correct, 
to go to the church at the ensuing 1.15 a.m. and 
wait at the grave therein (S. W. corner of S. 
aisle) of Richard Hart, died * * * , setat * * * . 
She was to verify this reference also in the reg- 
isters. He said her railway ticket would not be 
taken, and she was to send it along with a white 
rose from his grave to Dr. Ferrier. Forbade her 
having any previous communication with the 
place, or going in her own name. Said Joseph 



152 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

Wright, a dark man, to whom she should de- 
scribe him, would help her. That she would 
lodge with a woman who would tell her that she 
had a child (drowned) buried in the same 
churchyard. When Mrs. Claughton had done all 
this, she should hear the rest of the history. 
Towards the end of the conversation, Mrs. 
Claughton saw a third phantom, that of a man 
whose name she is not free to give, in great trou- 
ble, standing, with hands on face (which he af- 
terwards lowered, showing face) behind Mrs. 
Blackburn's right. The three disappeared. 
Mrs. Claughton rose and went to the door to 
look out at the clock, but was seized with 
faintness, returned and rang the electric bell. 
Mr. Buckley found her on the ground. She was 
able to ask the time, which was about 1.20 a.m. 
Then fainted, and the Buckleys undressed her 
and put her to bed. 

"That morning, Tuesday, Mrs. Claughton sent 
for Dr. Ferrier, who corroborated certain mat- 
ters so far as she asked him, and ascertained for 
her the date of Mrs. Blackburn's marriage (she 
received his note of the date on Thursday) . She 
went to the Post Office, and found that Meresby 
existed. Returned, and ascertained that it was 
in Suffolk, and so wrote that evening to Dr. 
Ferrier, and went to London with her daugh- 
ters that (Thursday) evening. 



TKUE GHOST STORIES 153 

"Friday night, Mrs. Claughton dreamt that 
she arrived at 5, after dusk, that a fair was go- 
ing on, and that she had to go to place after 
place to get lodgings. Also, she and her eldest 
daughter dreamt that she would fail if she did 
not go alone. Went to Station for 12 noon train 
on Saturday. Went to refreshment room for 
luncheon, telling porter to call her in time. He 
went by mistake to waiting room, and she 
missed train and had to wait (going to the 
British Museum, where she wrote her name in 
Jewel room) until 3.5, as stated. House where 
she finally found lodgings was that of Joseph 
Wright, who turned out to be the parish clerk. 
She sent for the curate by porter, to ask as to 
consulting registers, but as he was dining out 
he did not come till after she had gone to bed. 
Sunday morning, Mrs. Wright spoke to her 
about the drowned child buried in the church- 
yard. Went to forenoon service, and imme- 
diately afterwards went into vestry and verified 
the registers; described George Howard to Jos- 
eph Wright, who had known him and recognized 
description; then was taken by Joseph Wright 
to the graves of Richard Hart and George How- 
ard. On the latter there is no stone, but three 
mounds surrounded by a railing overgrown with 
white roses. She gathered rose for Dr. Ferrier, 



154 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

as had been directed. Walked and talked with 
curate, who was not sympathetic. After lunch- 
eon went with Mrs. Wright and walked round 
Howard's house (country house in park). At- 
tended evening service, and afterwards, while, 
watching the lights put out and the church fur- 
niture covered up, wondered if she would have 
the nerve to go on. Back to supper ; afterwards 
slept and had dream of a terrorizing character, 
whereof has full written description. Dark 
night, hardly any moon, a few stars. To church 
with Joseph Wright at 1 a.m., with whom 
searched interior and found it empty. At 1.20 
a.m. was locked in alone, having no light; had 
been told to take Bible, but had only church- 
service, which she had left in vestry in the morn- 
ing. Waited near grave of Richard Hart; felt 
no fear. Received communication, but does not 
feel free to give any detail; no light. History 
begun at Blake street then completed. Was di- 
rected to take another white rose from George 
Howard's grave and gathered rose for Miss How- 
ard, as had been directed. Home and bed, and 
slept well for the first time since first seeing 
Mrs. Blackburn. 

"Next day went and sketched church and 
identified grave of Mrs. Rose, on whose grave, 
she had been told in church, she would find a 



TEUE GHOST STORIES 155 

message for herself. The words engraved were 
* * * 

"Then called on Miss Howard and recognized 
strong likeness to her father. Carried out all 
things desired by the dead to the full, as had 
been requested. Has had no communication 
from any of them since. Nothing since has ap- 
peared in Blake street. The wishes expressed to 
her were not illogical or unreasonable, as the 
ratiocination of dreams often appears, but per- 
fectly rational, reasonable, and of natural im- 
portance." 

MY OWN TRUE GHOST STORY 

The following narrative was told to me by a 
very well-known artist ; who maintains the strict 
accuracy of every word in his account, as given 
below : 

"I had been living in Paris for some months 
when I decided to change my quarters, and move 
into a studio more in keeping with my present 
allowance. After a brief search, I saw one 
which exactly suited me. It was a large room, 
at the end of a long, dark rambling passage, 
with doors leading into other studios on either 
side all the way down. As my neighbours 



156 TEUE GHOST STORIES 

turned out to be a very jolly, happy crew, I 
liked the life immensely, and everything prom- 
ised well for the new abode. 

"I had been there for, perhaps, two weeks 
when I had my first 'ghostly' adventure. I had 
been out rather late, having had late supper, 
and perhaps a little too much wine for my best 
health. At the same time, I was absolutely so- 
ber, and in full possession of all my senses. I 
felt a little happy and convivial — that was all. 

"Walking along the passage, I was approach- 
ing my door when I distinctly heard the rustle 
of a silk skirt walking down the passage ahead 
of me. As the hallway was dark, I could not see 
whether or not the girl was just in front of me, 
or some distance away. It never for a moment 
struck me that it was not a flesh-and-blood visi- 
tant. My only thought was: One of the boys 
has been having a little supper, and this must 
be one of his visitors going home. I called 
aloud: 'Mayn't I strike a light and show you 
the way along this dark hall?' And, suiting the 
action to the word, I struck a match, and held it 
up over my head. Nothing was visible! I 
peered into vacancy ; no female figure could I see. 
I listened for the sound of steps, or the swish of 
a silken petticoat ; but not a sound could I hear. 
I walked along the passage; not a sign of life 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 157 

was anywhere ^ safest. Everything was dark, 
lonely and deserted. 

"I came to the conclusion that I must have 
been deceived; and thought no more about it. 
I went to bed and to sleep. 

"It was, perhaps, two nights later when the 
same thing occurred. Coming home, about 10 
o'clock at night, I heard the same swish of the 
skirt; the same soft, feminine footsteps. This 
time the hall was light, and I could see that no 
one was there. I recalled the incident of the 
other evening, and a cold chill began to creep 
up my backbone. I entered my room, however, 
lit the lamp, leaving my door open, ^ow/ 
thought I, 'if anyone passes that door again, I 
shall surely see them/ I put on a dressing gown 
and a pair of slippers, and sat down to read — 
facing the door. 

"Perhaps five minutes had elapsed when I 
saw the door very slowly open still further on 
its hinges. A moment later I felt in the room a 
'Presence/ which I distinctly felt to be that of a 
young woman, about twenty years of age. So 
vivid was the mental picture I formed of this 
person that her very features and coloring were 
sensed by me — though, of course, I had no means 
of knowing whether or not I was right. 

"The Presence glided across the room, and sat 



158 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

itself upon the edge of my sofa, about three feet 
distant from where I sat. I looked at the spot 
intently, and felt that the eyes of my invisible 
visitor were upon me, regarding me intently, as 
though studying my character to the best of her 
ability. She had a comfortable sort of feeling 
about her, which made me seem at once at home 
with her; so that, without further ceremony, I 
said to the Presence: "Pray make yourself at 
home. If I can do anything for you, let me 
know/ 

"I waited, but of course there was no re- 
sponse. Only I thought I caught again the 
faintest rustle of silk, as the figure seated itself 
in a more comfortable position. I put down my 
book, and began to paint. The feeling of lone- 
liness, which I had experienced ever since my 
removal into the new studio, vanished imme- 
diately. I felt that a living, human — if invisi- 
ble — being was with me, watching my work and 
keeping me company during the long hours of 
discouragement and unproductive effort. 

"Several times, during the course of the even- 
ing, I spoke to the Presence; but received no 
reply. Only I felt its proximity, and knew when 
the figure changed its position, as it did once or 
twice. Once it came over and stood by my side, 
as though looking at the canvas, and criticising 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 159 

it with me. Then it went back to its seat at the 
end of the sofa. 

"Bed time came. I felt almost abashed to go 
to bed with this feminine presence in the room ! 
However, as there was nothing left for me to do, 
I undressed, got into bed, and blew out the 
light. The Presence came over and sat on the 
side of my bed. When I went to sleep, it was 
still sitting there. 

"The next morning it had gone. I felt inex- 
pressibly lonely. I missed the Presence, whom 
I now began to call 'Her' instead of 'It/ and 
wished she would return and keep me company ! 
It did not do so, however, until the following 
evening, when, about nine o'clock, I again felt 
her approach, felt her entrance through my stu- 
dio door, and felt her seat herself in my easy 
chair, and turn her eyes upon me. I knew that 
she was regarding me intently — perhaps criti- 
cally — and I felt almost angry that I, in turn, 
could not see her. I gazed at the chair deter- 
mined to see her ; but nothing save empty space 
met my gaze ! With a gesture of impatience and 
irritation, I turned away, and went on with my 
painting. 

"Presently, I was aware that She was stand- 
ing beside me, examining the painting upon the 
easel. 'Well, do you like it?' I said almost caus- 



160 TEUE GHOST STORIES 

tically. The Presence immediately returned and 
sat in the chair, and I knew that I had offended 
Her. I threw my brush and pallet aside and 
apologized. So she came and stood by me again ; 
and again she remained with me until I closed 
my eyes in sleep. 

"This sort of thing went on for several weeks. 
Every evening the Presence visited me, kept me 
company, making the day seem long and dreary 
until she came. I waited for her appearance 
with growing impatience. I could never see or 
feel anything; my spoken words brought no re- 
sponse ; yet there she was ; and I felt just as as- 
sured of the presence, in my studio, of a femin- 
ine spiritual being as of my own existence. 
Every evening the Presence was with me when I 
went to sleep; every morning it had vanished. 
The sense of friendliness and companionship was 
complete and unmistakable. 

"One evening my visitor failed to appear: I 
could do no work; I paced the floor, I could do 
nothing, think of nothing! The sense of deso- 
lation and loneliness was absolute. I hardly 
realized, until then, how completely I had grown 
accustomed to the presence of my invisible visi- 
tor. I missed her more than I ever dreamed I 
could miss anyone in life. Forlorn and for- 
saken, I went to bed, and finally dropped into a 
fitful and broken sleep. 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 161 

"For about a week things went on in this 
way. I had grown gradually reconciled to my 
lonely life, and was painting hard for an exhi- 
bition which was near at hand. One evening I 
came into the studio, and I found the Presence 
waiting for me — seated in the easy chair, by the 
fire. 

"I felt my heart and whole being give a throb 
of joy and recognition — just as it would at the 
sight of an old and very dear friend. I knew 
how much I had missed her! I knew that She 
had risen, and was standing, facing me, as I en- 
tered. Before I had time to check myself, or 
think what I was doing, I had rushed forward, 
crying 'Dearest/ with outstretched arms, and 
had embraced the spot where I knew her to be 
standing ! I grasped the empty air, but I some- 
how felt two hands placed upon my shoulders, 
and the imprint of a delicate kiss upon my lips. 

"I no longer felt lonely. I whistled, I sang, I 
took off my coat, and, donning jacket and slip- 
pers, set to work with joy upon my picture. I 
painted hard, and all the while the Presence 
stood by me, criticising — approving or disap- 
proving — and in every instance I felt Her criti- 
cism and judgment to be right. 

"A year went by. I had to give up my studio, 
and return to America, on my father's sudden 



162 TKTJE GHOST STOKIES 

death. The parting with the Presence I shall 
never forget. Had two lovers in the flesh parted 
from one another, it could not have been more 
real, more touching, more sincere. For my own 
part I was heartbroken. The Presence, too, I 
knew to be weeping. The parting was long and 
sorrowful. Finally, I tore myself away. 

"I have never seen or felt anything from that 
day to this. But of the reality and objective ex- 
istence of that Presence I am as assured as I 
am of any event in my life. No one can tell me 
that it was a trick of the imagination — I know 
better! She was as real to me as any person- 
ality I have ever known. Yes, the Unreal is 
Eeal, of that I have no doubt whatever. My own 
experience with the Ghostly world has proved 
that to my satisfaction!" 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 163 



CHAPTER IV 

HAUNTED HOUSES 

When "phantasms of the dead" constantly ap- 
pear in one house, and there only, that house is 
said to be "haunted" and, in such a case, the 
phantasms seem to be attracted to the locality 
more than to the individuals living in it. This 
is usually the case in so-called haunted houses; 
no matter who lives within them, they one and 
all see the spectral forms; but this is not inva- 
riably so. In the case of the "Great Amherst 
Mystery," for example — given below — the haunt- 
ing seemed to be associated with the person 
more than the house, so that we might be said 
to have here a case of a Haunted Man (or Wo- 
man ) . But this is the exception, not the rule. 

The cases that follow are all well-attested; 
and the phenomena have been witnessed by 
many persons. The original Reports, for the 
most part, have appeared in the Proceedings of 
the S. P. R., and the facts were carefully investi- 
gated at the time, by competent investigators. 
The first instance is particularly interesting, be- 



164 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

cause of the experiments which were tried to as- 
certain the nature of the "ghost," and if many 
more such experiments were conducted, we 
might hope, in time, to know something about 
them. I shall begin with a carefully recorded 
example, which I may call — 

THE RECORD OF A HAUNTED HOUSE 

The case of a haunted house here given is very 
well authenticated, and corroborated by six 
written and signed statements, as well as that 
of the original informant. The account origi- 
nally appeared in the Proceedings of the S. P. 
R., Vol. VIII., pp. 311-32, and is drawn up by 
Miss Morton, a lady of scientific training who 
resided for a long time in the house in question. 
She was well-known to Mr. Myers, then Hon. 
Sec. of the Society. Very interesting experi- 
ments were conducted to test the nature of the 
"ghost" as the following brief account will show : 

"My father took the house in March, 1882, 
none of us having then heard of anything unus- 
ual about the house. We moved in towards the 
end of April, and it was not until the follow- 
ing June that I first saw the apparition. 

"I had gone up to my room, but was not yet in 
bed, when I heard someone at the door, and went 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 165 

to it, thinking it might be my mother. On open- 
ing the door, I saw no one ; but on going a few 
steps along the passage I saw the figure of a tall 
lady, dressed in black, standing at the head of 
the stairs. After a few moments she descended 
the stairs, and I followed for a short distance, 
feeling curious what it could be. I had only a 
small piece of candle, and it suddenly burnt it- 
self out; and, being unable to see more, I went 
back to my room. 

"On the night of August 2, the footsteps were 
heard by my three sisters and by the cook, all of 
whom slept on the top landing — also by my mar- 
ried sister, Mrs. K., who was sleeping on the 
floor below. They all said the next morning that 
they had heard them very plainly pass and re- 
pass their doors. . . . These footsteps are very 
characteristic, and are not at all like those of 
any people in the house ; they are soft and rather 
slow, though decided and even. My sisters 
would not go out on the landing after hearing 
them pass, but each time when I have gone out 
after hearing them, I have seen the figure there. 

"On the evening of August 1, we were sitting 
in the drawing-room, with the gas lit but the 
shutters not shut, the light outside getting dusk 
— my brothers and a friend having just given 
up tennis, finding it too dark; my elder sister. 



166 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

Mrs. E., and myself both saw the figure on the 
balcony outside, looking in at the window. She 
stood there some minutes, then walked to the 
end and back again, after which she seemed to 
disappear. She soon after came into the draw- 
ing-room, when I saw her, but my sister did 
not. 

"The apparitions were (always) of exactly 
the same type, seen in the same places by the 
same people, at varying intervals. 

"The footsteps continued, and were heard by 
several visitors and new servants, who had taken 
the places of those who had left, as well as by 
myself, four sisters and brothers ; in all by about 
twenty people, many of them not having pre- 
viously heard of the apparitions and sounds. 

"Other sounds were also heard in addition 
which seemed gradually to increase in intensity. 
They consisted in walking up and down on the 
second floor landing, of bumps against the doors 
of the bedrooms, and of the handles of the doors 
turning. The bumps against the doors were so 
marked as to terrify a new servant, who had 
heard nothing of the haunting, into the belief 
that burglars were breaking into her room. . . . 

"During the year, at Mr. Myers' suggestion, I 
kept a photographic camera constantly ready to 
try to photograph the figure, but on the few oc- 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 167 

casions I was able to do so, I got no result; at 
night, usually only by candle light, a long ex- 
posure would be necessary for so dark a figure, 
and this I could not obtain. 

"I also tried to communicate with the figure, 
constantly speaking to it and asking it to make 
signs, if not able to speak, but with no result. 
I also tried especially to touch her, but did not 
succeed. On cornering her, as I did once or 
twice, she vanished. 

"One night, my sister E. went up to her room 
on the second story, but as she passed the room 
where my two sisters L. and M. were sleeping, 
they opened their door to say that they had 
heard noises, and also seen what they described 
as a flame of a candle, without candle or han- 
dle visible, cross the room diagonally from cor- 
ner to corner. Two of the maids opened the 
doors of their two bedrooms, and said that they 
also heard noises ; they all 5 stood at their doors 
with their lighted candles for some little time. 
They all heard steps walking up and down the 
landing between them; as they passed they felt 
a sensation which they described as a "cold 
wind" though their candles were not blown out. 
They saw nothing. The steps then descended the 
stairs, re-ascended, again descended, and did not 
return. . . . 



168 TEUE GHOST STORIES 

"The figure became much less substantial on 
its later appearances. Up to about 1886 it was 
so solid and life-like that it was often mistaken 
for a real person. It gradually became less dis- 
tinct. At all times it intercepted the light; we 
have not been able to ascertain if it cast a 
shadow. I should mention that it has been seen 
through window glass, and that I myself wear 
glasses habitually, though none of the other per- 
cipients do so. The upper part of the figure al- 
ways left a more distinct impression than the 
lower, but this may partly be due to the fact 
that one naturally looks at people's faces before 
their feet. 

PROOFS OF IMMATERIALITY 

"1. I have several times fastened fine strings 
across the stairs at various heights before going 
to bed, but after all others have gone up to their 
rooms. ... I have twice, at least, seen the 
figure pass through the cords, leaving them in- 
tact. 

"2. The sudden and complete disappearance 
of the figure while still in full view. 

"3. The impossibility of touching the fig- 
ure. . . . 

"4. It has appeared in a room with the doors 
shut. 



TRUE GHOST STOKIES 169 

CONDUCT OF ANIMALS IN THE HOUSE 

"We have strong grounds for believing that 
the apparition was seen by two dogs. 

"Twice I remember seeing our dog suddenly 
run up to the mat at the foot of the stairs in the 
hall, wagging his tail, and moving his back in 
the way dogs do when expecting to be caressed. 
It jumped up, fawning as it would do if a person 
was standing there, but suddenly slink away 
with its tail between its legs, and retreated, 
trembling, under a sofa. We were all strongly 
under the impression that it has seen the figure. 
Its action was peculiar, and was much more 
striking to an onlooker than it could possibly ap- 
pear from a description. 

"In conclusion, as to the feelings aroused by 
the presence of the figure, it is very difficult to 
describe them ; on the first few occasions, I think 
the feeling of awe at something unknown, mixed 
with a strong desire to know more about it, pre- 
dominated. Later, when I was able to analyze 
my feelings more closely, and the first novelty 
had gone off, I was conscious of a feeling of 
loss, as if I had lost power.to the figure. 

"Most of the other percipients speak of a feel- 
ing of cold wind, but I myself have not exper- 
ienced this. . • . 



170 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

B HOUSE 

This is a very famous case of "Haunting," 
which was investigated by Sir Oliver Lodge, Mr. 
F. W. H. Myers, Colonel Taylor (a specialist 
on Haunted Houses), Miss X., the Marquis of 
Bute, etc. The chief reports of the occurrence 
are due to the last three named persons; and 
from the Journal kept during their occupancy of 
the house the following extracts are made : 

"February If, Thursday. I awoke suddenly, 
just before 3 a.m. Miss Moore, who had been 
lying awake for over two hours, said: 'I want 
you to stay awake and listen.' Almost imme- 
diately I was startled by a loud clanging sound, 
which seemed to resound through the house. 
The mental image it brought to my mind was 
as of a long metal bar, such as I have seen near 
iron-foundries, being struck at intervals with a 
wooden mallet. The noise was distinctly that of 
metal struck with wood ; it seemed to come diag- 
onally across the house. It sounded very loud, 
though distinct, and the idea that any inmate of 
the house should not hear it seemed preposter- 
ous. . . . 

"I also had an experience this morning which 
may have been purely subjective, but which 
should be recorded. About 10 a.m., I was writ- 



TEUE GHOST STORIES 171 

ing in the library, face to light, back to fire. 
Mrs. W. was in the room, and addressed me 
once or twice; but I was aware of not being re- 
sponsive, as I was much occupied. I wrote on, 
and presently felt a distinct, but gentle push 
against my chair. I thought it was the dog,, 
and looked down, but he was not there. I went 
on writing, and in a few minutes felt a push, 
firm and decided, against myself which moved 

me on my chair. I thought it was Mrs. W , 

who, having spoken and obtained no answer,, 
was reminding me of her presence. I looked 
backward with an exclamation — the room was, 
empty! She came in presently, and called my 
attention to the dog, who was gazing intently 
from the hearth-rug at the place where I had 
expected (before) to see him. . . . 

"As the day began with the above, and as I 
had had a quiet rest, I went to 'the copse' at 
dusk. The moon was bright, and the twilight 
lingered. We waited about in the avenue to let 
it get darker, but it was still far from dark. 
Then we made our way up to the glen — Miss 
Moore, Miss Langton and myself. 

"I saw 'Ishbel' and 'Marget' in the old spot 
across the burn. [Two 'spirits' who had been 
seen about the house, several times before]. 
'Ishbel' was on her knees in the attitude of weep- 



172 TKTJE GHOST STORIES 

ing, 'Marget' apparently reasoning with, her in 
a low voice, to which 'Ishbel' replied very occa- 
sionally. I could not hear what was said from 
the noise of the burn. We waited for perhaps 
ten or fifteen minutes. They had appeared when 
I had been there for three or four. When we 
regained the avenue (in silence) Miss Moore 
asked Miss Langton, What did you see?' (She 
liad been told nothing, except that the Colonel, 
who did not know details then, had said in her 
presence something about 'a couple of nuns/ 
She said: 'I saw nothing, but I heard a low 
talking/ Questioned further, she said it seemed 
close behind. The glen is so narrow that this 
might be quite consistent with what I heard and 
saw. Miss Moore heard a murmuring voice, and 
is quite certain it was not the burn. She is less 
suggestible than almost any one I know. . . . 
The dog ran up while we were there, pointed, 
and ran straight for the two women. He after- 
wards left us, and we found him barking in the 
glen. He is a dog who hardly ever barks. We 
went up among the trees where he was, and 
could find no cause. . . . 

"This morning's phenomenon is the most in- 
comprehensible I have yet known. I heard the 
banging sounds after we were in bed last night. 
Early this morning, about 5.30, I was awakened 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 173 

by them. They continued for nearly an hour. 
Then another sound began in the room. It 
might have been made by a very lively kitten 
jumping and pouncing, or even by a very large 
bird; there was a fluttering noise too.* It 
was close, exactly opposite the bed. Miss Moore 
woke up, and we heard the noise going on till 
nearly eight o'clock. I drew up the blinds and 
opened the windows wide. I sought all over the 
room, looking into cupboards and under furni- 
ture. We cannot guess at any possible expla- 
nation. . • . " 

A few weeks later, Miss X., wrote in her 
"Journal" : 

"The general tone of things is disquieting, and 
new in our experience. Hitherto, in our first 
occupation, the phenomena affected one as mel- 
ancholy, depressing and perplexing, but now all, 
quite independently, say the same thing — that 
the influence is evil and horrible — even poor lit- 
tle 'Spooks' (the dog) who was never terrified 
before, has been since our return here. The 
worn faces at breakfast are really a dismal 
sight." 



♦This fluttering noise, as of a bird, is very often met 
with in the literature of the occult, and is typical of 
'haunted houses.' In the famous case of Lord Lyttleton, 
for instance, this was recorded, and was said to announce 
his death. He died three days later, in bed. 



174 TKUE GHOST STORIES 

Soon after this the investigators left the 
house. 

WILLINGTON MILL 

This is one of the most famous Haunted 
Houses on record. The case has been described 
in various books on ghosts, the most complete 
account being that contained in the Journal of 
the Psychical Research Society. . . . Mr. Proc- 
tor lived for several years in the haunted mill, 
and got quite used to the apparitions, which 
stalked about the place at all hours. Visitors, 
however, did not like them as much as he did. 
The following extracts will suffice to explain the 
general character of the haunting in this case — 

"When two of Mrs. Proctor's sisters were 
staying at the Mill on a visit, their bed was sud- 
denly violently shaken, the curtains hoisted up 
all round to their tester and then as rapidly let 
down again, and this again in rapid succession. 
The curtains were taken off the next night, with 
the result that they both saw a female figure, of 
mysterious substance and of a greyish-blue hue 
come out of the wall at the head of the bed and 
lean over them. They both saw it distinctly. 
They saw it come out of and go back again into 
the wall. . • . Mrs. Davidson's sister-in-law had 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 175 

a curious experience on one occasion. One even- 
ing she was putting one of the bedrooms right, 
and, looking toward the dressing table, saw what 
she supposed was a white towel lying on the 
ground. She went to pick it up, but imagine 
her surprise when she found that it rose up, and 
went up behind the dressing-table over the top, 
down on the floor across the room, disappeared 
under the door, and was heard to descend the 
stairs with a heavy step! The noise which it 
made in doing so was distinctly heard by Mr. 
Proctor and others in the house. 

"On one occasion, Mr. Mann, the old mill fore- 
man, with his wife and daughter, and Mrs. 
Proctor's sister, all four saw the figure of a bald 
headed old man in a flowing robe like a surplice 
gliding backwards and forwards about three feet 
from the floor, level with the bottom of the sec- 
ond story window; he then stood still in the 
middle of the window and part of the body which 
appeared quite luminous showed through the 
blind. While in that position, the framework 
of the window was visible, while the body was 
as brilliant as a star, and diffused a radiance all 
round; then it turned a bluish tinge, and grad- 
ually faded away from the head downwards. 

"The children, however, were the chief ghost- 
seers. On one occasion one of the little girls 



176 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

came to Mrs. Davidson and said : 'There is a lady 
sitting on tlie bed in mamma's bedroom. She 
has eyeholes but no eyes; and she looked so 
hard at me.' On another occasion a boy of two 
years old was charmed with the ghost, and 
laughed and kicked, crying out : 'Ah dares some- 
body — pee, pee!' On one occasion the mother 
saw through the bed curtain a figure cross the 
room to the table on which the light was burn- 
ing, take up the snuffers and snuff the can- 
dle. . . . 

"Several experiments were made with a clair- 
voyant by the name of Jane, to ascertain the 
cause of the mystery. In the mesmeric trance 
she described the house accurately; described 
the nature of the disturbances which were going 
on within it; and stated that the chief cause of 
the trouble was to be found 'in the cellar.' This 
was not verified. The full story, as narrated, 
is certainly one of the most curious to be found 
anywhere." 

THE GREAT AMHERST MYSTERY 

This is one of the most remarkable cases on 
record. It is the case of a haunted house, in 
which many physical manifestations of all sorts 
took place, and were observed by nearly a hun- 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 177 

dred persons, all of whom testified as to the 
reality of the facts. The house in question is 
situated in Amherst, N. S. — hence the name. 
Residing in this small house were (when the 
events occurred (Mr. and Mrs. Teed, their chil- 
dren, Willie, aged five years, and George, aged 
seventeen months. His wife's two sisters, Jen- 
nie and Esther Cox, also lived with them — Es- 
ther being the person around whom nearly all 
the phenomena centered. John Teed and Wil- 
liam Cox also boarded at the house — brothers of 
Mr. and Mrs. Teed, respectively. 

The manifestations began in a very peculiar 
manner. The two girls, who had just gone to 
bed (they slept together) were on the point of 
falling asleep, when Esther suddenly jumped 
out of bed with a scream, exclaiming that there 
was a mouse in the mattress. A careful search 
failed, however, to reveal the presence of any 
mouse. The same thing happened the next 
night; and when the girls got up to search for 
the mouse, a paste-board box, which was under 
the bed, jumped up in the air and fell over on 
its side. They decided to say nothing about it ; 
got into bed again, and were soon asleep. 

The next night manifestations began in earn- 
est. Esther began to swell; her body became 
puffed all over, and she thought she was going 



178 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

to burst. She screamed with pain. Just then, 
however, three terrific reports shook the room, 
and the swelling suddenly subsided. She was 
placed in bed ; but no sooner had she been placed 
upon it than all the bed-clothes flew off her, and 
settled in the far corner of the room. "They 
could see them passing through the air by the 
light of the kerosene lamp which was lighted and 
standing on the table, and both screamed as 
only scared girls can, and then Jennie fainted. " 

The bed-clothes were replaced. No sooner was 
this done than the pillow flew x>ut from under 
her head, and landed in the center of the floor. 
It was replaced, but again flew out, hitting Mr. 
Teed in the face. Three deafening reports then 
shook the house; after which all manifestations 
ceased for the night. 

The next night, these manifestations were re- 
peated; the bed-clothes flew off, in view of all; 
and in the midst of this, the sound of scratching 
became audible, as of a metallic object scraping 
plaster. "All looked at the wall whence the 
sound of writing came, when, to their great as- 
tonishment, there could be plainly read these 
words: 'Esther Cox, you are mine to kill.' 
Every person in the room could see the writing 
plainly, and yet but a moment before nothing 
was to be seen but the plain kalsomined wall ! . . 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 179 

These things continued day after day, and 
were seen by many persons. Articles would be 
thrown about the house; Dr. Carrittee, the 
family physician, saw "a bucket of cold water 
become agitated, and, to all appearances, boil 
while standing on the kitchen table. " A voice 
was heard, in the atmosphere of the house, talk- 
ing to Esther ; and telling her all manner of hor- 
rible things. Soon after this, to the consterna- 
tion of all present, "all saw a lighted match fall 
from the ceiling to the bed, having come out of 
the air, which would certainly have set the bed- 
clothing on fire, had not Jennie put it out in- 
stantly. During the next two minutes, eight or 
ten lighted matches fell on the bed and about 
the room, out of the air, but were all extin- 
guished before anything could be set fire by 
them. . . . " 

This fire-raising continued for several days. 
The family would smell smoke, and, on running 
up into the bedroom, they would find a bundle 
of clothes placed in the center of the floor, blaz- 
ing. Or they would descend to the cellar; and 
there find a pile of shavings alight and blazing 
merrily. They lived in constant danger of hav- 
ing the house burned over their heads. 

Soon after this, things got so bad that Esther 
Cox had to leave home, and went to visit a friend 



180 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

by the name of White, in the hope that the 
manifestations would cease, when she was re- 
moved from her own home. For four weeks 
things went well ; then they began again just as 
ever. Knocks and raps were heard all over the 
house, which answered questions asked them; 
and told the amount of money people had in 
their pockets, etc. Articles of furniture were 
thrown about ; voices sounded ; and, worst of all, 
Esther now began to see the ghost; and de- 
scribed it to those about her. Among other ter- 
rifying phenomena, which took place at Mr. 
Whites' house, the following should be men- 
tioned — 

" . . . A clasp-knife belonging to little Fred- 
eric White was taken from his hand, while he 
was whittling something, by the devilish ghost, 
who instantly stabbed Esther in the back with 
it, leaving the knife sticking in the wound, 
which was bleeding profusely. Frederic pulled 
the bloody knife from the wound, wiped it, 
closed it and put it in his pocket, which he had 
no sooner done than the ghost obtained posses- 
sion of it again and, quick as a flash of light- 
ning, stuck it into the same wound. . . . " 

Some person tried the experiment of placing 
three or four large iron spikes on Esther's lap 
while she was seated in the dining-saloon. To 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 181 

the unutterable astonishment of Mr. White, 
Erederic and other persons present, the spikes 
were not instantly removed, as it was expected 
they would be, but, instead, remained on her 
lap until they became too hot to be handled 
with comfort, when they were thrown by the 
ghost to the far end of the saloon — a distance of 
twenty feet. This fact was fully corroborated. 

It was at this stage of the proceedings that the 
spot was visited by Walter Hubbell, an actor, 
who remained some time in Amherst, studying 
the case, and who has written a whole book 
about it — "The Great Amherst Mystery." On 
the night of his arrival, they all sat round a ta- 
ble, in full light, to see what they could see, and 
knocks and raps resounded immediately. "We 
could all hear even the scratching sound of in- 
visible human finger nails, and the dull sounds 
produced by the hands, as they rubbed the ta- 
ble, and struck it with invisible, clenched fists, 
in knocking in response to questions." 

The next day, Mr. Hubbell records the follow- 
ing facts, among others : "I had been seated 
about five minutes when, to my great astonish- 
ment, my umbrella was thrown a distance of six- 
teen feet, passing over my head in its strange 
flight, and almost at the same instant a large 
carving knife came whizzing through the air, 



182 TEUE GHOST STORIES 

passing over Esther's head, who was just then 
coming out of the pantry with a large dish in 
both hands, and fell in front of her, near me — 
having come from behind her out of the pantry. 
I naturally went to the door and looked in, but 
no person was there. 

"After dinner I lay down on the sofa in the 
parlor ; Esther was in the room seated near the 
center in a rocking chair. . I did not sleep, but 
lay with my eyes only partially closed so that I 
could see her. While lynig there a large glass 
paper-weight, weighing fully a pound, came 
whizzing through the air from a corner of the 
room, where I had previously noticed it on an 
ornamental shelf, a distance of some twelve or 
fifteen feet from the sofa. Had it struck my 
head, I should surely have been killed, so great 
was the force with which it was thrown. . . . 

"On Monday, June 23, they commenced again 
with great violence. At breakfast, the lid of the 
sugar bowl was heard to fall on the floor. Mrs. 
Teed, Esther and myself searched for it for fully 
five minutes, and had abandoned our search as 
useless, when all three saw it fall from the ceil- 
ing. I saw it, just before it fell, and it was at 
the moment suspended in the air about one foot 
from the ceiling. No one was within five feet of 
it at the time. The table knives were then 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 183 

thrown upon the floor, the chairs pitched over, 
and after breakfast the dining-table fell over on 
its side, rugs upon the floor were slid about, 
and the whole room literally turned into a pan- 
demonium, so filled with dust that I went into 
the parlor. Just as I got inside the parlor door 
a large flower pot, containing a plant in full 
bloom, was taken from among Jennie's flowers 
on the stand near the window; and in a second, 
a tin pail, with a handle, was brought half -filled 
with water from the kitchen and placed beside 
the plant on the floor, both in the center of the 
parlor, and put there by a ghost. Just think of 
such a thing happening while the sun was shin- 
ing, and only a few minutes before I had seen 
this same tin pail from the dining-room hanging 
on a nail in the kitchen, empty ! And yet people 
say, and thousands believe, that there are no 
haunted houses! What a great mistake they 
make in so asserting ; but then they never lived 
in a gneuine one, where there was an invisible 
power that had full and complete sway. By all 
the demons ! When I read the accounts now in 
my ' Journal/ from which my experience is cop- 
ied, I am almost speechless with wonder that I 
ever lived to behold such sights. . . . 

"On this same day, Esther's face was slapped 
by the ghosts, so that the marks of fingers could 



184 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

be plainly seen — just exactly as if a human hand 
had slapped her face; these slaps could be 
plainly heard by all present. I heard them dis- 
tinctly, time and again. . . . 

"On Thursday, June 26, Jennie and Esther 
told me that the night before Bob, the demon, 
had been in their room again. They stated he 
had stuck them with pins and marked them from 
head to foot with crosses. I saw some of the 
crosses, which were bloody marks, scratched 
upon their hands, necks and arms. It was a sad 
sight. During the entire day, I was busy pull- 
ing pins out of Esther ; they came out of the air 
from all quarters, and were stuck into all the 
exposed portions of her person, even the h^ad, 
and inside of her ears. Maggie, the ghost, took 
quite an interest in me, and came to my room at 
night, while the lamp was burning, and knocked 
on the headboard of my bed and on the wall 
near the bed, which was not next to the room oc- 
cupied by the girls, but on an outside wall fac- 
ing the stable. I carried on a most interesting 
conversation with her, asking a great many 
questions which were answered by knocks. . . . 

"A trumpet was heard in the house all day. 
The sound came from within the atmosphere — 
I can give no other description of its effect on 
our sense of hearing. ... I wish to state, most 



TKUE GHOST STOKIES 185 

emphatically, that I could tell the difference in 
the knocks made by each ghost just as well as if 
they had spoken. The knocks made by Maggie 
were delicate and soft, as if made by a woman's 
hand, while those made by Bob Mckle were loud 
and strong, denoting great strength and evi- 
dently large hands. When he knocked with 
those terrible sledge-hammer blows, he certainly 
must have used a large rock or some other heavy 
object, for such loud knocks were not produced 
with hard knuckles. . . . " 

In July the phenomena became so bad that the 
landlord came and told the Teed family that 
either Esther would have to go, or they would 
all have to leave the house. It was decided that 
Esther should go, which she did, visiting some 
friends by the name of Van Amburgh. From 
the time she left her home the second time, she 
was never afterwards troubled with the ghosts. 
Some years later, she married and went to live 
in another town — where she was interviewed by 
the present writer in 1907. 

This account was sworn to by Mr. Hubbell be- 
fore a notary public, and he asserts under oath 
that every word of the account is true. He has 
also produced the written confirmatory testi- 
mony of a score of still-living witnesses of the 
phenomena in Amherst. 



186 TKUE GHOST STOKIES 

A very similar case occurred in Tennessee, in 
1818, and is recorded in full by M. V. Ingram, 
in his book, "The Bell Witch." Many other 
cases of a like nature are to be found in the 
"History of the Supernatural." 

For ghosts of the dead 
Through Infinite ages 
Have wandered and lurked 
In earth's atmosphere; 
Watchful and eager 
For victims to torture 
To follow and Mil, 

Or make tremble with fear. 
Yes, ghosts of the dead 
Revengeful and evil, 
Still come in hordes 
From the Stygian shore; 
Entering houses 
To torment our maidens 
Burning and wrecking 
Our homes evermore. 

BROOK HOUSE 

The following case is given in full by Mr. 
W. T. Stead in his Real Ghost Stories, and I 
extract from his narrative some of the most 



TEUE GHOST ST DRIES 187 

striking and interesting passages. It is a truly 
remarkable narrative, well worthy of careful 
perusal. 

Mr. Ralph Hastings, of Broadmeadow, Teign* 
mouth, wrote in October, 1891, enclosing the fol- 
lowing extracts from his diary, which he had 
kept in the haunted house : 

"I was spending some months of the summer 
of '73 at a favorite watering place in the S.E. 
coast. One afternoon I went to visit some old 
friends who lived in an old house which stood in 
a quadrangle, and was approached from the 
church by a narrow lane. Brook House was a 
commodious, red-brick structure of three stories, 
faced by a Court, with its ground-floor windows, 
unseen from the outside by reason of the lofty 
wall which encircled them. 

"On the day in question, as I approached the 
house from the Church side, I happened ta 
glance at the window to the right on the second 
floor. There I saw, to my astonishment, the 
apparent figure of Miss B., standing partially 
dressed, arranging her hair and looking in- 
tently at me. On entering the house, I was at 
once shown into the drawing-room, and I found 
Miss B. reading. In reply to my question, she 
told me she had been there an hour! 

"My curiosity was now fully aroused, and I 



188 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

went to the house the next day, July 4, accom- 
panied by a lady, a mutual friend. We went up 
into the room in which I had seen the figure, 
threw the window open — it being very hot — 
looking on to the garden, and then went down- 
stairs into the drawing-room, where we had some 
music. We went up again in about half an 
hour's time. The window was shut. . . . We 
went back into the garden, and looked up at the 
window. Presently, to our horror, a figure ap- 
peared resembling Miss B., yet most unlike her 
— its fearful eyes were gazing at me without 
movement and totally expressionless. What, 
then, caused the arresting of the heart's pulsa- 
tion (as it felt) and blood — that the moment be- 
fore had burnt as it coursed madly through the 
veins — to be chilled to ice? This — one was face 
to face with a spirit, and withered by the con- 
tact. Those eyes — I can see them — I can feel 
them — after a lapse of nearly twenty years. 
Miss B. had incontinently fainted when she saw 
the shoulders (as she described it) of the figure. 
I continued gazing spellbound; like the 'Wed- 
ding Guest' I was held by the spirit's eye, and I 
could not choose but look. The dreadful hands 
were lifted automatically; they rested on the 
window sash. It came partly down, stayed a 
moment, then noiselessly closed, and I saw a 



TEUE GHOST STORIES 189 

hand rise and clasp it. I gazed steadfastly 
throughout. What impressed me strangely wa& 
this peculiarity, that as soon as the sash had 
passed the face the latter vanished, the hands 
remained ; the unreality of the actual movement 
of the window, as it descended, also seemed to 
contradict me: it suggested (for want of a bet- 
ter comparison) the mechanical passage of stage 
scenery, and some sorts of toys that are pulled 
by wires; it made no noise whatever. Now I 
distinctly recognized the shape as that of Rhoda, 
Miss B.'s elder sister, who had been dead some 
twelve years. . . . We looked again, and saw 
the backs of two hands on the outside of the 
window, but they did not move it. 

"We then went in, coming out again almost 
directly, and saw the window nearly closed; 
then went upstairs into the room; and again 
I flung the window as wide open as it would 
go, and before leaving set the door open, with a 
heavy chair against it; but previous to this (I 
omitted to mention) as we were looking up at 
the window after the appearance of the hands, 
we saw a horrible object come from the right 
(the apparition invariably did) ; it resembled a 
large, white bundle, called by Miss B., who had 
before seen it, 'The Headless Woman'; it came 
in front of the window and then began walking 



190 TEUE GHOST STORIES 

backwards and forwards. After a lapse of half 
an hour, we went upstairs again, and found the 
chair by the window, and the door closed ; where- 
upon I wrote 'It' a letter to this effect: 'Miss 
B. and Mr. H. present their compliments to the 
"Lady Headless" and request her acceptance of 
this fruit from their garden; they hope it will 
please, as she has often been seen admiring it. 
A reply will oblige, but the bearer does not wait 
for the answer.' We put the chair once more 
against the window, placing the fruit and note 
on it ; two or three times we went up, but noth- 
ing had changed. 

"We then went and stood outside the summer 
house, whence a clear view of the window could 
be obtained; presently there came forward the 
headless figure; and distinctly bowed two or 
three times, then immediately afterwards a deaf- 
ening slam of the door. The apex of this figure, 
which was rotund, i.e., headless, once or twice 
dilated, and we feared seeing something, we 
knew not what ; it then vanished, and we saw a 
beautiful arm come from the curtain and wave 
to us. Upstairs again, the door was shut; on 
entering we saw the chair overturned in the mid- 
dle of the room, the fruit scattered in all direc- 
tions, and, to our horror, the note, which I had 
folded crosswise, was charred at each corner. 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 191 

I took it up ; but lacked the courage to open, and 
perhaps find a possible reply. Placing it in a 
plate I burnt it. The process was a very slow 
one ; and it distilled a dark mucus. 

"The whimsical idea now possesed me to ar- 
range the room like a theatre, the armchair and 
others I placed facing the stand ; on them I laid 
antimacassars, and books for programmes. We 
then went down to the end of the garden which 
commanded a view of the room, and looked: 
blank space, nothing more — stay! A curious 
filmy vapor begins to float in the air, which 
slowly cohered, evolved vague phantasms; they 
unite, and gradually assume a definite shape. 
The headless woman fronts us at the window, 
she vanishes, and an immense sheet is waved 
twice or thrice from the right side of the win- 
dow, something is flung out; we walk quickly 
up the garden and there, under the window, lies 
one of the books. What had hastened our steps 
was the frantic gesticulating of the servant. 
She was frightened out of her senses by the pe- 
culiar sounds proceeding from the room; but 
she could not describe them, saying that they 
seemed to be a terrible hurrying to and fro, ac- 
companied by strange noises. . . . We took 
the Bible and entered the room, which was in 
disorder : the flower-stand was thrown down, the 



192 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

two chairs widely apart, one of the antimacas- 
sars was tightly folded up under the recumbent 
towel horse, the other with the towel was airing 
itself on the gigantic tree some seven feet from 
the window. . . . 

"The next day we went into the room, and 
discovered an impression in the bed, as though 
some 'thing' had lain in it. On closer inspec- 
tion, we distinctly saw the coverlet gently mov- 
ing, resembling the very gentle respiration of a 
body beneath. We returned to the garden, hav- 
ing thrown open the window. After waiting for 
a long time, we saw what looked like a hand ap- 
pear on the center of the window sill, then from 
the curtain came the white figure. 

"It disappeared and after a moment or two 
the hand also ; but there must have been a some- 
thing besides crouching under the window, for 
it heaved upwards and seemed to fill the window 
for an instant. It then sank, the hand van- 
ished, and we saw no more. We waited a long 
time, till I spoke of going. I had noticed as a 
curious thing that almost always, when I had 
wearied of looking, seeing nothing and about to 
leave, something was sure to happen. . . . 

"This ends my personal experiences. My 
health became impaired, and for upwards of 
two years I was invalided, but as time wore on 



TEUE GHOST STORIES 193 

and the impressions waned, I gradually recov- 
ered. I often wander back in imagination to 
the many mysteries that in the long ago held 
sway at Brook House." 



194 TRUE GHOST STORIES 



CHAPTER V 

GHOST STORIES OF A MORE DRAMATIC NATURE 

In the cases which are adduced in the present 
chapter, the standard of evidence cannot be con- 
sidered so high; many of them have been re- 
corded in good faith as actual experiences, but 
they will probably fail to carry conviction to 
the same etxent as those which have gone before. 
Still, many of these narratives are singularly 
striking and interesting ; and for this reason de- 
serve to be included in this volume. The reader 
may therefore place any construction he may 
choose upon these cases; as they are presented 
not as evidence but as entertainment. I shall 
l)egin with some personal experiences of a Scotch 
seer, who, according to his own accounts, has 
experienced some of the most dramatic and re- 
markable manifestations conceivable. 

DISEASE-PHANTOMS 

Mr. Elliott O'Donnell — a man about whom it 
has been said that "the gates of his soul are 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 195 

open on the Hell side/' has had many strange 
experiences with spirits, mostly evil and horri- 
ble, and has recorded these in his books "Ghostly 
Phenomena," "Byways of Ghostland," etc. 
From his voluminous writings on his own per- 
sonal experiences, I cite a few cases, to show 
the character of the phenomena : 

"I have, from time to time, witnessed many 
manifestations which I believe to be super-phys- 
ical, both from the peculiarity of their proper- 
ties, and from the effect their presence inva- 
riably produce on me — an effect I cannot asso- 
ciate with anything physical. One of the first 
occult phenomena I remember, appeared to me 
when I was about five years of age. I was then 
living in a town in the West of England, and 
had, according to the usual custom, been put to 
bed at six o'clock. I had spent a very happy 
day, playing with my favorite toys — soldiers — 
and, not being in the least degree tired, was 
amusing myself with planning a fresh campaign 
for the following morning, when I noticed sud- 
denly that the bedroom door (which I distinctly 
remember my nurse carefully latching) was 
slowly opening. Thinking this was very cu- 
rious, but without the slightest suspicion of 
'ghosts,' I sat up in bed and watched. 

"The door continued to open, and at last I 



196 TKTJE GHOST STOEIES 

caught sight of something so extraordinary that 
my guilty conscience at once associated it with 
the Devil — with regard to whom I distinctly rec- 
ollected to have spoken that afternoon in a 
sceptical, and I frankly admit, very disrespect- 
ful manner. But far from feeling the proximity 
of that heat which all those who profess author- 
ity on Satanic matters ascribe to Satan, I felt 
decidedly cold — so cold, indeed, that my hands 
grew numb and my teeth chattered. At first I 
only saw two light glittering eyes that fixed 
themselves upon me with an expression of dia- 
bolical glee, but I was soon able to perceive that 
they were set in a huge, flat face, covered with 
fulsome-looking yellow spots about the size of 
a threepenny bit. I do not remember noticing 
any of the other features, save the mouth, which 
was large and gaping. The body to which the 
head was attached was quite nude, and covered 
all over with spots similar to those on the face. 
] cannot recall any arms, though I have vivid 
recollections of two thick and, to all appear- 
ances, jointless legs, by the use of which it left 
the doorway, and gliding noiselessly over the 
carpet, approached the empty bed, placed in a 
parallel position to my own. There it halted, 
and thrusting its mis-shapen head forward, it 
fixed its malevolent eyes on me with a penetrat- 



TKUE GHOST STOEIES 197 

ing stare. On this occasion, I was far less f right- 
than on any of my subsequent experiences with 
the occult. Why, I cannot say, as the manifes- 
tation was certainly one of the most hideous I 
have ever seen. My curiosity, however, was far 
greater than my fear, and I kept asking myself 
what the thing was, and why it was there? 

"It did not seem to be composed of ordinary 
flesh and blood, but rather of some luminous 
matter that resembles the light emanating from 
a glow-worm. 

"After remaining in the same attitude for 
what seemed to me an incalculably long time, it 
gradually receded, and assuming all of a sudden 
a horizontal attitude, passed head first through 
the wall opposite to where I sat. Next day, I 
made a sketch of the apparition, and showed it 
to my relatives, who, of course, told me I had 
been dreaming. About two weeks later I was 
ill in bed with a painful, if not actually danger- 
ous, disease. I was giving an account of this 
manifestation at a lecture I delivered two or 
three years ago in B., and when I had finished 
speaking, I was called aside by one of the au- 
dience who very shyly told me that he too had 
had a similar experience. Prior to being at- 
tacked by diphtheria, he had seen a queer-look- 
ing apparition which had approached his bedside 



198 TKUE GHOST STOKIES 

and leaned over him. He assured me that he 
had been fully awake at the time, and had ap- 
plied tests to prove that the phantom was en- 
tirely objective. 

"A number of other cases, too, have been re- 
ported to me, in which various species of phan- 
tasms have been seen before various illnesses. 
Hence I believe that certain spirits are symbol- 
ical of certain diseases, if not the actual creat- 
ors of the bacilli from which these diseases arise. 
To these pantasms I have given the name of 
Morbas. . . . " 

THE TALE OF THE MUMMY 

"During one of my sojourns in Paris/' says 
Mr. Elliott O'Donnell, in his "Byways of Ghost 
Land," "I met a Frenchman who, he informed 
me, had just returned from the East. I asked 
him if he had brought back any curios such as 
vases, funeral urns, weapons or amulets. 'Yes, 
lots/ he replied, 'two cases full. But no mum- 
mies! Mon Dieu! No mummies. You ask me 
why? Ah! Thereby hangs a tale. If you will 
have patience, I will tell it you.' 

"The following is the gist of his narrative: 
" 'Some seasons ago I traveled up the Nile as 
far as Assiut, and when there, managed to pay 






TRUE GHOST STORIES 199 

a visit to the grand ruins of Thebes. Among the 
various treasures I brought away with me was a 
mummy. I found it lying in an enormous lid- 
less sarcophagus, close to a mutilated statue of 
Anubis. On my return to Assiut, I had the 
mummy placed in my tent, and thought no more 
of it till something awoke me with startling sud- 
denness in the night. Then, obeying a peculiar 
impulse, I turned over on my side and looked in 
the direction of my treasure. 

" 'The nights in the Soudan at this time of 
year are brilliant, one can even see to read, and 
every object in the desert is almost as clearly 
visible as by day. But I was quite startled by 
the whiteness of the glow which rested on the 
mummy, the face of which was immediately op- 
posite mine. The remains — those of Met-Om- 
Karema, lady of the College of the god Amen-ra 
— were swathed in bandages, some of which had 
worn away in parts or become loose; and the 
figure, plainly discernible, was that of a shapely 
woman with elegant bust, well-formed limbs, 
rounded arms and small hands. The thumbs 
were slender, and the fingers, each of which was 
separately bandaged, long and tapering. The 
neck was full, the cranium rather long, the nose 
aquiline, the chin firm. Imitation eyes, brows, 
and lips were painted on the wrappings, and the 



20Q TRUE GHOST STORIES 

^effect thus produced and in the phosphorescent 
glare of the moonbeams, was very weird. I was 
quite alone in the tent, the only European who 
accompanied me to Assiut, having stayed in the 
town by preference, and my servants being en- 
camped at one hundred or so yards from me on 
the ground. 

" 'Sound travels far in the desert, but the si- 
lence now was absolute, and, though I listened 
attentively, I could not detect the slightest noise 
— man, beast and insect were abnormally still. 
There was something in the air, too, which 
struck me as unusual; an odd, clammy coldness 
that reminded me at once of the catacombs in 
Paris. I had hardly, however, conceived the re- 
semblance, when a sob — low, gentle, but very 
distinct — sent a thrill of horror through me. 
It w^as ridiculous, absurd. It could not be, and 
I fought against the idea as to whence the sound 
had proceeded, as something too utterly fantas- 
tic, too utterly impossible. I tried to occupy 
my mind with other thoughts — the frivolities of 
CJairo, the casinos of Mce; but all to no pur- 
pose ; and soon, on my eager, throbbing ear there 
again fell that sound, that low and gentle sob. 
My hair stood on end; this time there was no 
doubt, no possible manner of doubt — the mum- 
my lived ! I looked at it aghast. I strained my 



TEUE GHOST STOEIES 201 

vision to detect any movement in its limbs, but 
none was perceptible. Yet the noise had come 
from it, it had breathed — breathed — and even as 
I hissed the word unconsciously through my 
clenched lips, the bosom of the mummy rose and 
fell. 

" 'A frightful terror seized me. I tried to 
shriek to my servants; I could not ejaculate a 
syllable. I tried to close my eye-lids, but they 
were held open as in a vice. Again there came 
a sob that was immediately succeeded by a sigh ; 
and a tremor ran through the figure from head 
to foot. One of its hands then began to move, 
the fingers clutched the air convulsively, then 
grew rigid, then curled slowly into the palms, 
then suddenly straightened. The bandages con- 
cealing them from view then fell off, and to my 
agonized sight were disclosed objects that struck 
me as strangely familiar. There is something 
about fingers, a marked individuality, I never 
forget. No two persons' hands are alike. And 
in these fingers, in their excessive whiteness, 
round knuckles, and blue veins, I read a like- 
ness whose prototype, struggle how I would, I 
could not recall. Gradually the hand moved up- 
wards, and, reaching the throat, the fingers set 
to work at once to remove the wrappings. My 
terror was now sublime. I dare not imagine, I 



202 TKTJE GHOST STORIES 

dare not for one instant think, what I should 
see. And there was no getting away from it ; I 
could not stir an inch, and the ghastly revela- 
tion would take place within a yard of my face ! 

" 'One by one the bandages came off. A glim- 
mer of skin, pale as marble ; the beginning of the 
nOse, the whole nose ; the upper lip, exquisitely, 
delicately cut; the teeth, white and even on the 
whole, but here and there a shining gold filling ; 
the under lip, soft and gentle ; a mouth I knew, 
but — God, where? In my dreams, in the wild 
fantasies that had oft-times visited by pillow at 
night — in delirium, in reality, where? Mon 
Dieu! WHERE? 

" 'The uncasing continued. The chin next, a 
chin that was purely feminine, purely classical ; 
then the upper part of the head — the hair long, 
black, luxuriant — the forehead low and white — 
the brows black, firmly pencilled; and last of 
all, the eyes ! — and as they met my frenzied gaze, 
smiled, smiled right down into the depths of my 
living soul, I recognized them — they were the 
eyes of my mother, my mother who had died in 
my boyhood ! Seized with a madness that knew 
no bounds, I sprang to my feet. The figure rose 
and confronted me. I flung open my arms to 
embrace her, the woman of all women in the 
world I loved best, the only woman I had ever 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 203 

loved. Shrinking from my touch, she cowered 
against the side of the tent. I fell on my knees 
before her and kissed — what? Not the feet of 
my mother, but those of the long-buried dead. 
Sick with repulsion and fear I looked up, and 
there bending over and peering into my eyes 
was the face, the fleshless, mouldering face of 
the foul and barely recognizable corpse! With 
a shriek of horror I rolled backwards, and, 
springing to my feet, prepared to fly. I glanced 
at the mummy. It was lying on the ground, 
stiff and still, every bandage in its place ; whilst 
standing over it, a look of fiendish glee in its 
light, doglike eyes, was the figure of Anubis, lu- 
rid and menacing. 

" 'The voices of my servants, assuring me they 
were coming, broke the silence, and in an in- 
stant the apparition vanished. 

" 'I had had enough of the tent, however, at 
least for that night, and, seeking refuge in the 
town, I whiled away the hours till morning with 
a fragrant cigar and a novel. Directly I had 
breakfasted, I took the mummy back to Thebes, 
and left it there. No thank you, Mr. O'Donnell, 
I collect many kinds of curios, but — no more 
mummies V " 



204 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

FACE SLAPPED BY A GHOST 

The following remarkable event occurred to 
a friend of mine — an elderly, married lady, 
whom I have known for some time. She is now 
making her home in Brooklyn, but at the time 
of her gruesome experience was residing in Eng- 
land. It is some years since this occurred, but 
the incident, she assured me, lives just as vividly 
in her mind as though it all happened yesterday. 
This is her story, just as she told it to me : 

"I was staying with some friends in the coun- 
try. They had an old, rambling house, with 
long, draughty halls and corridors all over it. 
As the house was already full of guests, I had 
to sleep in a large room, at the end of the long 
passage, on the ground floor. The room in it- 
self was comfortable enough — large and warm. 
Yet there was an atmosphere about that apart- 
ment which I did not quite like; in fact, the 
whole house made me feel "creepy," for no rea- 
son that I can give. 

"Bed-time came all too soon; and I took my 
candle and was shown my room. My hostess 
saw that I had everything I needed; and then, 
saying good-night, went upstairs to bed. 

"I had half undressed when I saw the door of 
my room gently and quietly opened, as though 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 205 

a stealthy hand were softly pressing it open. I 
gazed transfixed, until, when wide open, I could 
see that no one was, in reality, on the other side 
of the door. At that I drew a breath of relief. 
'A draught,' I thought, 'coming down the hall- 
way. It is nothing.' And I chided myself on 
my fears; shut the door, and proceeded to un- 
dress. 

"I had not gone far, however, when to my 
amazement the door opened again; just as 
quietly and stealthily as before. Again I closed 
the door, and proceeded with my undressing. I 
had by this time finished, and had donned my 
night-gown preparatory to getting into bed. 

"At that moment I was horrified to see my 
door open for the third time, just as it did be- 
fore — slowly, slowly, until it rested on its 
hinges, wide open to the hall. I now deter- 
mined to investigate ; so, taking my candle in my 
hand, I stepped out into the hall and proceeded 
down towards the front door. 

"I had not taken more than three or four 
steps, however, when the candle in my hands 
was extinguished — as though a breath of wind, 
coming from nowhere, had blown it out. I did 
not much relish this, as the matches were in my 
room. But I determined to keep on, in the dark, 
and see what the cause of this could be. So I 



206 TKTJE GHOST STORIES 

kept on and on, down the dark hall — my left 
hand holding the extinguished candle ; my right 
extended so that I conld feel the solid masonry 
all the way down the corridor. 

"I had proceeded, perhaps, half way, when a 
strange thing occurred. I suddenly felt myself 
slapped on the left cheek by something cold and 
moist and clammy. I put my hand up to my 
face, and felt it was wet. For an instant I hes- 
itated; then I proceeded, down the hall, until I 
came to the front door. That I found closed and 
locked. Having thus explored the whole length 
of the hall and found nothing, I turned back to 
regain my room. Still holding the candle in my 
left hand, and still feeling the wall with my out- 
stretched right hand, I crept cautiously along, 
not knowing what to expect. 

"Again, I had proceeded about half way down 
the hall when I felt the same cold, quick slap 
in the face (this time on the right cheek) and 
again I found it was wet. 

"Thoroughly frightened now, I fled to my 
room as fast as my legs could carry me. Once 
within, I closed and secured the door by placing 
a chair against it. Next, finding my box of 
matches, I relighted my candle. Then I sur- 
veyed myself in the mirror, to see what could be 
upon my face. 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 207 

"Imagine my horror when, on looking in the 
glass, I discovered two long streaks of blood, one 
upon either cheek! I was so terror-struck that 
I gazed at myself for a few moments unable to 
move or speak. Then I screamed, and after that 
I have no very clear recollection of what hap- 
pened. I have a hazy recollection of anxious 
faces bending over me ; of a low hum of voices ; 
then oblivion. 

"It took me many weeks to recover from the 
shock of that night." 

ALONE WITH A GHOST IN A CHURCH 

The following case is sent me by a corre- 
spondent : 

I once knew a young man by the name of 
Charles D. Bradlaugh, who took a delight in 
ridiculing ghost stories and, whenever possible, 
in proving them to be due to fraud, trickery or 
hallucination. He stated he was "afraid of 
nothing." I said to him one day in conversa- 
tion : "If you are as fearless as you say, would 
you be willing to spend a night alone, locked up 
in a Church with a corpse freshly placed in its 
coffin ?" 

He replied that he would do it any time; so 
the test was shortly arranged. One of the par- 
ishioners had just died, and had been placed in 



208 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

the crypt of the church, with the lid of the cof- 
fin removed. The lights were all extinguished; 
we locked the door after us, and went away, 
leaving Bradlaugh and the spirits to fight it out 
between them. 

What occurred during the night must be told 
in Bradlaugh's own words, as nearly as I can 
recall them: 

"When I heard the key turn in the door, that 
night, I confess that a strange feeling came over 
me for the first time in my life. I wanted to 
get out; but of course I knew it was useless; 
and in the next place my pride forbade my leav- 
ing. Shaking off the superstitious fear that had 
settled upon me, I turned away; and proceeded 
to explore, as best I could, the whole of the 
church. 

"A bright moonlight fell in through the win- 
dows, casting queer shadows in various direc- 
tions; and across the long rows of pews and 
the altar at the far end of the church. I walked 
about, looking at everything curiously, as it had 
been long since I found myself inside a church. 
Then I proceeded to the crypt, and, walking 
boldly up to the coffin, I gazed long and earn- 
estly at the corpse lying within it, as though to 
familiarize myself with it. I went on the prin- 
ciple that 'familiary breeds contempt/ When I 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 209 

had done this, I went back to the nave of the 
church, and, finding a comfortable place, I lay 
down, and was soon in a state bordering on 
sleep. I should have been asleep, probably, very 
soon ; but, just as I was dropping off, I heard a 
faint sound coming from the direction of the 
crypt. It was like a deep sigh, and this was 
followed by other sounds which I find it hard to 
describe. All I know is that, in the quiet and 
stillness of that awful place, those sounds, slight 
as they were> were truly appalling, and chilled 
the very blood in my veins. Their very indis- 
tinctness added to their terror. I could not con- 
ceive what could make such uncanny noises. I 
sat up, and strained my eyes in the darkness, 
trying to penetrate the gloom. Then I heard 
the first faint footsteps coming up the stairs 
from the crypt! At first, these were faint, but 
they became louder and louder ; until finally I 
could hear them plainly. Undoubtedly they 
were foot-falls, as though a human being were 
mounting the steps from the crypt where the 
corpse had been laid! 

"I rose from my seat, my hair standing on 
end, while queer, cold shivers ran up and down 
my back. I advanced one or two paces toward 
the door, hardly knowing what to expect. Then, 
as I looked, I saw step into the bright moonlight, 



210 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

the corpse that a few moments before I had 
seen lying in the coffin downstairs! 

"Frantic with fear, I rushed at the corpse, 
still shrouded, as it was, in the white wrappings 
which, torn and dishevelled, still enveloped the 
body. I raised one hand as though to strike the 
ghost, and thrust the hateful thing from me; 
when I felt a stunning blow on the point of my 
jaw, and a moment later I had lost sensibility. 
When I awoke, you were all round me. You 
know the rest." 

To make a long story short, it turned out that 
the supposed "corpse" was not really dead at 
all, but in a sort of trance ; and had been buried 
prematurely. He had revived in the night ; and 
was advancing into the church when he encoun- 
tered Bradlaugh in the doorway. Thinking him 
a robber or an assassin, he had struck first; 
and, being a powerful man and a good boxer, 
he had knocked out Bradlaugh by a blow on the 
jaw. When we arrived in the morning, we 
found Bradlaugh senseless, and the "corpse," 
now stripped of Ms grave clothes, bending over 
him, dashing cold water in his face ! 

A HAUNTED HOUSE IN FRANCE 

The following case, said to be authentic, is 
quoted here because of the incident of the 



TKUE GHOST STORIES 211 

"shouts and laughter" which were heard, and 
which serve to throw an interesting sidelight on 
the case which follows it. 

The Rev. F. G. Lee, in his book, Sights and 
Shadows, gives the following account, sent to 
him, of a haunted house in France : 

"In the spring of the year 1891, great excite- 
ment was occasioned by a disembodied spirit in 
a haunted house in LePort, at Mce. This is 
situated in a terrace close to the quarries, 
where, after the reports concerning it, as many 
as two thousand persons were often gathered 
round it. The spirits haunting it — never visible, 
however — would beat the inmates so unmerci- 
fully that the blows would leave bruises. Hun- 
dreds of persons saw the result, and testified to 
the undoubted facts. The local police, on being 
appealed to, and having heard the evidence of 
numerous eye-witnesses, and of those persons 
who were inconvenienced, formed a body of or- 
ganized inquirers, who, shrewd enough in mun- 
dane matters, utterly failed to discover anything 
or anybody. 

"On one occasion, thirteen men sat up in three 
rooms which had been well lighted, and some 
of them played cards for several hours to while 
away the time. During the whole of this occur- 
rence, the strangest noises were heard in various 



212 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

parts of the building. It seemed, at one time, 
as if a whole regiment of soldiers were tramping 
up the chief staircase. Pictures swung to and 
fro upon the walls, without any visible motive 
effect.* Then heavy blows were heard on the 
walls, and it appeared that the closed doors and 
the shutters were being violently struck and 
thumped, as if with a large hammer wrapped in 
cloth. 

On two occasions, a room on the ground floor 
was found to be in the densest darkness, though 
outside the house the sun was shining. On an- 
other occasion, just before midnight, when cer- 
tain persons were specially present to note any 
supernatural occurrences, all the lamps in the 
house were suddenly put out; while shouts and 
laughter were heard in every part of the place, 
more particularly from the empty rooms. At 
the same time, heavy blows were experienced by 
those present, who were very severely bruised, 
and a large bottle of ink was thrown by invisible 
hands from the top of the staircase. 

"Every attempt was made to discover the 
source of these extraordinary disorders, but 
without avail. They were reported to have 
ceased for several months, but to have com- 
menced again at a later period. A local com- 



*This is a common feature of haunted houses.- H.C. 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 213 

munication says that they still 'occur at inter- 
vals/ " 

A HAUNTED HOUSE IN GEORGIA 

The following account is taken from the re- 
port of the San Francisco Examiner, and is cer- 
tainly one of the most striking cases of the char- 
acter on record. It is not put forward as 
strictly "evidential," but its interesting nature 
certainly warrants its insertion in this volume. 

"Soon after the Walsinghams took up their 
abode in their new home, they began to be dis- 
turbed by strange sounds and odd phenomena. 
These disturbances generally took the form of 
noises in the house after the family had retired 
and the lights had been extinguished — continual 
banging of the doors, things overturned, the 
doorbell rang, and the annoying of the house 
dog, a large and intelligent mastiff. 

"One day Don Caesar, the mastiff, was found 
in the hallway barking furiously and bristling 
with rage, while his eyes seemed directed to the 
wall just before him. At last he made a spring 
forward with a hoarse yelp of ungovernable 
fury, only to fall back as if flung down by some 
powerful and cruel hand. Upon examination it 
was found that his neck had been broken. 



214 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

"The house cat, on the contrary, seemed rather 
to enjoy the favor of the ghost, and would often 
enter a door as if escorting some visitor, whose 
hand was stroking her back. She would also 
climb about a chair, rubbing herself and purring 
as if well pleased at the presence of some one in 
the seat. She and Don Caesar invariably mani- 
fested this eccentric conduct at the same time, 
as though the mysterious being were visible to 
both of them. 

"The annoying visitant finally took to arous- 
ing the family at all hours of the night by mak- 
ing such a row as to render any rest impossible. 

"This noise, which consisted of shouts, groans, 
hideous laughter, and a peculiar, most distress- 
ing wail, would sometimes proceed, apparently, 
from under the house, sometimes from the ceil- 
ing and at other times in the very room in which 
the family was seated. One night Miss Amelia 
Walsingham, the young lady daughter, was en- 
gaged at her toilet, when she felt a hand softly 
laid on her shoulder. Thinking it her mother or 
sister, she glanced at the glass before her, only 
to be thunderstruck at seeing the mirror reflect 
no form but her own, though she could plainly 
see a man's broad hand lying on her arm. 

"She brought the family to her by her screams, 
but when they reached her all sign of the mys- 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 215 

terious hand had gone. Mr. Walsingham him- 
self saw footsteps form beside his own while 
walking through the garden after a light rain. 

"The marks were those of a man's naked feet, 
and fell beside his own, as if the person walked 
at his side. 

"Matters grew so serious that the Walsing- 
hams became frightened, and talked of leaving 
the house, when an event took place which con- 
firmed them in this determination. The family 
was seated at the supper table with several 
guests who were spending the evening when a 
loud groan was heard in the room overhead. 

"This was, however, nothing unusual, and 
very little notice was taken of it until one of the 
visitors pointed out a stain of what looked like 
blood on the white table cloth, and it was seen 
that some liquid was slowly dripping on the 
table from the ceiling overhead. This liquid was 
so much like freshly-shed blood that it horrified 
those who watched its slow dropping. Mr. Wal- 
singham, with several of his guests, ran hastily 
upstairs and into the room directly over the one 
in which the blood was dripping. 

"A carpet covered the floor, and nothing ap- 
peared to explain the source of the ghastly rain ; 
but, anxious to satisfy themselves thoroughly, 
the carpet was immediately ripped up, and the 



216 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

boarding found to be perfectly dry, and even 
covered with, a thin layer of dust, and all the 
while the floor was being examined the persons 
below could swear the blood never ceased to 
drop. A stain the size of a dinner-plate was 
formed before the drops ceased to fall. This 
stain was examined the next day under the mi- 
croscope, and was pronounced by competent 
chemists to be human blood. 

"The Walsinghams left the house next day, 
and since then the place has been apparently 
given over to spooks and evil spirits, which, make 
the night hideous with the noise of revel, shouts 
and furious yells. Hundreds from all over this 
county and adjacent ones have visited the place, 
but few have had the courage to pass the night 
in the haunted house. One daring spirit, how- 
ever, Horace Gunn, of Savannah, accepted a 
wager that he could not spend twenty-four hours 
in it, and did so, though he declares that there 
is not enough money in the country to make him 
pass another night there. He was found the 
morning after by his friends with whom he made 
the wager in a swoon. He has never recovered 
from the shock of his horrible experience, and is 
still confined to his bed suffering from nervous 
prostration. 

"His story is that shortly after nightfall he 



TEUE GHOST STORIES 217 

endeavored to kindle a fire in one of the rooms, 
and to light the lamp with which he had pro- 
vided himself, but to his surprise and conster- 
nation, found it impossible to do either. An icy- 
breath, which seemed to proceed from some in- 
visible person at his side, extinguished each 
match as he lighted it. At this peculiarly terri- 
fying turn of affairs Mr. Gunn would have left 
the house and forfeited the amount of his wager, 
a considerable one, but he was restrained by the 
fear of ridicule. He steadied himself in the dark 
with what calmness he could, and waited devel- 
opments. 

"For some time nothing occurred, and the 
young man was half-dozing, when, after an hour 
or two, he was brought to his feet by a sudden 
yell of pain or rage that seemed to come from 
under the house. This appeared to be the sig- 
nal for an outbreak of hideous noises all over 
the house. The sound of running feet could be 
heard scurrying up and clown the s+airs, hasten- 
ing from one room to another, as if one person 
fled from the pursuit of a second. This kept up 
for nearly an hour, but at last ceased altogether, 
and for some time Mr. Gunn sat in darkness and 
quiet, and had about concluded that the per- 
formance was over for the night. At last, how- 
ever, his attention was attracted by a white 



218 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

spot that gradually appeared on the opposite 
wall. 

"The spot continued to brighten, until it 
seemed a disc of white fire, when the horrified 
spectator saw that the light emanated from and 
surrounded a human head, which, without a 
body, or any visible means of support, was mov- 
ing slowly along the wall, about the height of a 
man from the floor. This ghastly head appeared 
to be that of an aged person, though whether 
male or female it was difficult to determine. 
The hair was long and gray, and matted to- 
gether with dark clots of blood, which also is- 
sued from a deep jagged wound in one temple. 
The cheeks were fallen in and the whole face 
indicated suffering and unspeakable misery. 
The eyes were wide open, and gleamed with an 
unearthly fire, while the glassy eyes seemed to 
follow the terror-stricken Gunn, who was too 
thoroughly paralyzed by what he saw to move 
or cry out. Finally, the head disappeared and 
the room was once more left in darkness, but 
the young man could hear what seemed to be 
half a dozen persons moving about him, while 
the whole house shook as if rocked by some vio- 
lent earthquake. 

"The groaning and the wailing that broke 
forth from every direction was something ter- 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 219 

rific, and an unearthly rattle and banging as of 
china or tin pans being flung to the ground floor 
from the upper story added to the deafening 
noise. Gunn at last roused himself sufficiently 
to try and leave the haunted house. Feeling his 
way along the wall, in order to avoid the be- 
ings, whatever they were, that filled the room, 
the young man had nearly succeeded in reach- 
ing the door when he found himself seized by 
the ankle and was violently thrown to the floor. 
He was grasped by icy hands, which sought to 
grip him about the throat. He struggled with 
his unseen foe, but was soon overpowered and 
choked into insensibility. When found by his 
friends, his throat was black with the marks of 
long, thin fingers, armed with cruel, curved 
nails. 

"The only explanation which can be found for 
these mysterious manifestations is that about 
three months before, a number of bones were 
discovered on the Walsingham place, which 
some declared even then to be those of a human 
being. Mr. Walsingham pronounced them, how- 
ever, to be an animal's, and they were hastily 
thrown into an adjacent limekiln. It is sup- 
posed to be the outraged spirit of a person to 
whom they belonged in life which is now creat- 
ing such consternation." 



220 TKUE GHOST STORIES 

SHAKEN BY A GHOST 

The following narrative is vouched for by 
Mrs. H. S. Iredell, of Tunbridge Wells, England, 
a relative of the Rev. Dr. Lee, who gives the case 
in his Sights and Shadows : 

"The haunted house in question is near 
Wandsworth common. The late occupants of it 
were a man, his wife and their child. They had 
to leave it, for they could get no rest in it at 
night for the fearful noises which went on in- 
cessantly, like sounds as of a sledge-hammer 
wrapped in flannel struck against the walls. 
The sister-in-law of the late occupants, who told 
me of it, had spent some days at the house, so I 
heard all the story first-hand. One night she 
likewise felt as if someone had taken her by the 
shoulders and she was being roughly shaken 
from side to side. Her husband, who was with 
her, saw her at the time she was being shaken 
by an invisible power, stretched out his hand to 
take hold of her ; but he felt right up his arm to 
his shoulder a shock, as it were of electricity, 
which made him instantly draw back and cry 
out. Nothing was ever seen, but in the special 
sleeping-room which seemed to be haunted, the 
clothes used to be pulled off the bed at night 
and thrown on the floor, and then they used to 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 221 

raise or rear themselves up again on the bed. . . 
"Since the above was written, it is reported 
that no less than five families have respectively 
occupied the house as tenants, who one and all 
have left it as soon as possible. It is now said 
to be permanently untenanted." 



This case is given because of the incident of 
the "electric shock" which the percipient re- 
ceived, when attempting to interfere with the 
"spirit" ; and serves as an interesting modern 
and apparently well-authenticated instance of 
what occurred in Lytton's story, which follows. 

THE HOUSE AND THE BRAIN 

Bulwer Lytton's story, "The House and the 
Brain," is, perhaps, the most remarkable ghost 
story of this character on record, and is consid- 
ered, by many, the best ever written. The phe- 
nomena occur in a house which is reputed to 
be haunted; no one will live in it. At last one 
brave soul determines to pass the night within 
its walls ; he and his servant take up their abode 
in it, and, after various startling adventures of a 
minor character, the "grand climax" of the night 
is reached. As the author sat reading by the 
fire, the following occurred, which is told in his 
own words: 



222 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

"I now became aware that something inter- 
posed between the page and the light — the page 
was over-shadowed ; I looked up, and I saw what 
I shall find it very difficult, perhaps impossible, 
to describe. 

"It was a Darkness shaping itself forth from 
the air in very undefined outline. I cannot say 
it was a human form, and yet it had more re- 
semblance to a human form, or rather shadow, 
than to anything else. As it stood, wholly apart 
and distinct from the air and light around it, 
its dimensions seemed gigantic, the summit 
nearly touching the ceiling. While I gazed, a 
feeling of intense cold seized me. An iceberg 
could not more have chilled me; nor could the 
cold of an iceberg have been more purely phys- 
ical. I feel convinced that it was not the cold 
caused by fear. As I continued to gaze, I 
thought — but this I cannot say with precision — 
that I distinguished two eyes looking on me 
from the height. One moment I fancied that I 
distinguished them clearly ; the next they seemed 
gone; but still two rays of pale blue light fre- 
quently shot through the darkness, as from the 
height on which, I half believed, half doubted, 
that I had encountered the eyes. 

"I strove to speak — my voice utterly failed 
me; I could only think to myself, Is this fear? 



TKTJE GHOST STORIES 223 

It is not fear! I strove to rise; in vain; I felt 
weighed down by an irresistible force. Indeed, 
my impression was that of an immense and over- 
whelming Power opposed to my volition; that 
sense of utter inadequacy to cope with a force 
beyond man's, which one may feel physically in 
a storm at sea, in a conflagration, or when con- 
fronting some terrible wild beast — or rather, 
perhaps, the shark of the ocean, I felt morally. 
Opposed to my will was another will, as far su- 
perior to its strength as storm, fire and shark 
are superior in material force to the force of 
man. 

"And now — as this impression grew on me — 
now came, at last, horror — horror of a degree 
that no words can convey. Still I retained 
pride, if not courage; and in my own mind I 
said : 'This is horror, but it is not fear ; unless I 
fear I cannot be harmed; my reason rejects this 
thing; it is an illusion — I do not fear.' With a 
violent effort I succeeded at last in stretching 
out my hand towards the weapon on the table; 
as I did so, on the arm and shoulder I received a 
strange shock, and my arm fell to my side pow- 
erless. And now, to add to my horror, the light 
began slowly to wane from the candles — they 
were not, as it were, extinguished, but their 
flame seemed very gradually withdrawn — it was 



224 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

the same with the fire; the light was extin- 
guished from the fuel; in a few minutes the 
room was in utter darkness. The dread that 
came over me, to be thus in the dark with that 
Thing, whose power was so intensely felt, 
brought on a reaction of nerve. In fact, terror 
had reached that climax, that either my senses 
must have deserted me, or I must have burst 
through the spell. I did burst through it. I 
found voice, though the voice was a shriek. I 
remember that I broke forth with words like 
these — 'I do not fear, my soul does not fear'; 
and at the same time I found the strength to 
rise. Still in that profound gloom I rushed to 
one of the windows — tore aside the curtain — 
flung open the shutters ; my first thought was — 
LIGHT. And when I saw the moon high, clear 
and calm, I felt a joy that almost compensated 
me for my previous terror. There was the 
moon; there also was the light from the gas 
lamps in the deserted, slumberous street. I 
turned to look back into the room; the moon 
penetrated its shadow very palely and partially 
— but still there was light. The dark Thing, 
whatever it might be, was gone — except that I 
could yet see a dim shadow, which seemed the 
shadow of that shade against the opposite wall. 
"My eye now rested on the table, and from 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 225 

under the table (which was without cloth or 
cover — an old mahogany round table) there rose 
a hand, visible as far as the wrist. It was a 
hand, seemingly, as much of flesh and blood as 
my own, but the hand of an aged person — lean, 
wrinkled, small too — a woman's hand. That 
hand very softly closed on the two letters that 
lay on the table ; hand and letters both vanished. 
Then there came the same three loud, measured 
knocks I had heard on the bed-head before this 
extraordinary drama commenced. 

"As these sounds slowly ceased, I felt the 
whole room vibrate sensibly ; and at the far end 
there rose, from the floor, sparks or globules, 
like globules of light, many colored — green, yel- 
low, fire-red, azure. Up and down, to and fro, 
hither, thither, as tiny Will o' the Wisps, the 
sparks moved, slow and swift, each at its own 
caprice. A chair (as in the drawing-room be- 
low) was now advanced from the wall without 
apparent agency, and placed at the opposite side 
of the table. Suddenly, as forth from the air, 
there grew a shape, a woman's shape. It was 
distinct as a shape of life — ghastly as the shape 
of death. The face was that of youth, with a 
strange, mournful beauty ; the throat and shoul- 
ders were bare; the rest of the form in a loose 
robe of cloudy white. It began sleeking its 



226 TKUE GHOST STORIES 

long, yellow hair, which, fell over its shoulders ; 
its eyes were not turned towards me, but to the 
floor; it seemed listening, watching, waiting. 
The shadow of the shade in the background grew 
darker; and again I thought I saw the eyes 
gleaming out from the summit of the shadow — 
eyes fixed upon that shape. 

"As if from the door, though it did not open, 
there grew out another shape, equally distinct, 
equally ghastly — a man's shape — a young man's. 
It was in the dress of the last century, or rather 
the likeness to such dress ( for both the male and 
the female, though defined, were evidently un- 
substantial, impalpable, simulacra, phantasms), 
and there was something incongruous, grotesque, 
yet fearful in the contrast between the elabo- 
rate finery, the courtly precision of that old- 
fashioned garb, with its ruffles and lace and 
buckles, and the corpse-like aspect and ghost- 
like stillness of the flitting wearer. Just as the 
male shape approached the female, the dark 
shadow started from the wall, and all three for 
a moment were wrapped in darkness. When the 
pale light returned, the two phantasms were as 
if in the grasp of the shadow, that towered be- 
tween them, and there was a blood stain on the 
breast of the female ; and the phantom male was 
leaning on its phantom sword, and blood seemed 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 227 

trickling fast from the ruffles, from the lace; 
and the darkness of the intermediate Shadow 
swallowed them up — they were gone. And 
again the bubbles of light shot, and sailed, and 
undulated, growing thicker and thicker and 
more wildly confused in their movements. 

"The closet door to the right of the fireplace 
now opened, and from the aperture there came 
the form of an aged woman. In her hand she 
held letters — the very letters over which I had 
seen the hand close; and behind her I heard a 
footstep. She turned round as if to listen, and 
then she opened her letters and seemed to read; 
and over her shoulder I saw a livid face, the 
face of a man long drowned — bloated, bleached 
— seaweed tangled in its dripping hair, and at 
her feet lay a form as of a corpse, and beside 
the corpse there towered a child, a miserable, 
squalid child, with famine in its cheeks and fear 
in its eyes. And as I looked in the old woman's 
face, the wrinkles and lines vanished ; and it be- 
came the face of youth — hard-eyed, stony, but 
still youth; and the Shadow darted forth and 
darkened over these phantoms as it had dark- 
ened over the last. 

"Nothing now was left but the Shadow, and 
on that my eyes were intently fixed, till again 
eyes grew out of the Shadow — malignant, ser- 



228 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

pent eyes. And the bubbles of light again rose 
and fell, and in their disordered, irregular, tur- 
bulent maze, mingled with the wan moonlight. 
And now from these globules themselves, as 
from the shell of an egg, monstrous things burst 
out; the air grew filled with them; larvae so 
bloodless and so hideous that I can in no way 
describe them except to remind the reader of 
the swarming life which the solar microscope 
brings before the eyes in a drop of water — 
things transparent, supple, agile, chasing each 
other, devouring each other — forms like nought 
ever beheld by the naked eye. As the shapes 
were without symmetry, so their movements 
were without order. In their very vagrancies 
there was no sport; they came round me and 
round; thicker and faster and swifter, swarm- 
ing over my head, crawling over my right arm, 
which was outstretched in involuntary com- 
mand against all evil things. Sometimes I felt 
myself touched, but not by them ; invisible hands 
touched me. Once I felt the clutch of cold, soft 
fingers at my throat, I was still equally con- 
scious that if I gave way to fear I should be in 
bodily peril ; and I concentrated all my faculties 
in the single focus of resisting, stubborn will. 
And I turned my sight from the Shadow— above 
all, from those strange serpent eyes — eyes that 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 229, 

had now become distinctly visible. For there, 
though in nought else round me, I was aware 
that there was a WILL, and a will of intense, 
creative, working evil, which might crush down 
my own. 

"The pale atmosphere in the room began now 
to redden as if in the air of some near confla- 
gration. The larvse grew lurid as things that 
live on fire. Again the room vibrated; again I 
heard the three measured knocks ; and again all 
things were swallowed up in the darkness of the 
dark shadow — as if out of that darkness all had 
come, into that darkness all had returned. 

"As the gloom receded, the Shadow was 
wholly gone. Slowly, as it had been withdrawn, 
the flame grew again into the candles on the 
table, again into the fuel in the grate. . . . 

"The room came once more calmly, healthfully 
into sight. 

"Nothing more chanced for the rest of the 
night. Nor, indeed, had I long to wait before 
the dawn broke. . . . " 



230 TEUE GHOST STOEIES 



APPENDIX A 

HISTORICAL GHOSTS 

Koyalty and well-known personages have seen 
ghosts in all ages of the world's history; cer- 
tainly they are not exempt from the common run 
of humanity so far as ghostly visitations are con- 
cerned! Mr. Stead has compiled a number of 
notable cases of this character, of which the fol- 
lowing are probably the most noteworthy : 

ROYAL 

Henry IV. of France told D'Aubigne that, 
in the presence of himself, the Archbishop of 
Lyons, and three ladies of the Court, the Queen 
(Margaret of Valois) saw the apparition of a 
certain Cardinal afterwards found to have died 
at the moment. 

Abel the Fratricide, King of Denmark, still 
haunts the woods of Poole, near the city of 
Sleswig. 

Valdemar IV. haunts Gurre Wood, near El- 
sinore. 

Charles XL, of Sweden, accompanied by his 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 231 

chamberlain and state physician, witnessed the 
trial of the assasin of Gartavus III., which oc- 
curred nearly a century later. 

James IV. } of Scotland, was warned by an ap- 
parition against his intended expedition into 
England. He, however, proceeded and fell at 
Flodden Field. 

Charles I., of England, was also warned by 
an apparition, but paying no heed, was disas- 
trously defeated at Naseby. 

Queen Elizabeth is said to have been warned 
of her death by the apparition of her own 
double. 

EMPERORS 

Trajan and Caracalla both saw apparitions, 
which they recorded. 

Theodosius and Julian the Apostate both be- 
held apparitions, at important crises in their 
lives. 

FAMOUS MEN 

Sir Robert Peel and his brother both saw Lord 

Byron in London when he was in reality lying 

dangerously ill of a fever in Patras. During the 

same fever, he also appeared to others. 

Julius Caesar, Xerxes, Drusus, Pausanius, Dio 



232 TKUE GHOST STOEIES 

(General of Syracuse), Admiral Coligni all saw 
apparitions, which made a deep impression on 
them in every case. 

Napoleon, at St. Helena, saw and conversed 
with the apparition of Josephine, who warned 
him of his approaching death. Blucher, on the 
day of his death, was also told of it by an appa- 
rition. General Garfield saw and conversed with 
his father, latterly deceased. Lincoln had a cer- 
tain premonitory dream which occurred three 
times in relation to important battles, and the 
fourth on the eve of his assassination. 

Dante, son of the poet, was visited in a dream 
by his father, who conversed with him and told 
him (correctly) where to find the missing thir- 
teen cantos of the "Commedia." 

Goethe saw his own double riding by his side 
under conditions which really occurred years 
later. 

Tasso saw and conversed with beings invisible 
to those about him. 

Cellini was dissuaded from suicide by the ap- 
parition of a young man who frequently visited 
and encouraged him. 

Mozart was visited by a mysterious person 
who ordered him to compose a requiem, and 
came frequently to inquire after its progress, 
but disappeared on its completion, which oc- 



TKUE GHOST STORIES 233 

curred just in time for its performance at Ms 
own funeral. 

Ben Johnson was visited by the apparition of 
Ms eldest son with the mark of a bloody cross 
upon his forehead at the moment of his death by 
the plague. 

Thackery wrote : "It is all very well for you 
who have probably never seen spirit manifesta- 
tions to talk as you do, but had you seen what I 
have witnessed you would hold a different opin- 
ion. " 

Hugh Miller, Maria Edgeworth, Captain Mar- 
ryat, Madame de Stael, Sir Humphrey Davy, 
William Harvey, Francis Bacon, Martin Luther, 
George Fox, Cardinal Neivman, Bishop Wilber- 
force, and many others have seen apparitions, or 
held converse with the unseen world in one form 
or another, as recorded by themselves. 

Among the famous Mstorical hauntings, we 
must not forget to mention the famous Cock 
Lane Ghost wMch occurred about 1760. Ac- 
cording to a brief paragraph printed in the Lon- 
don Ledger, 1762, we read that : 

"For some time a great knocking having been 
heard in the night, at the officiating parish 
clerk's of St. Sepulchre's, in Cock Lane near 
Smithfield, to the great terror of the family, and 
all means used to discover the meaning of it 



234 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

having failed, four gentlemen sat up there last 
Friday night, among whom was a clergyman 
standing withinside the door, who asked various 
questions. On his asking whether anyone had 
been murdered, no answer was made ; but on his 
asking whether anyone had been poisoned, it 
knocked one and thirty times. The report cur- 
rent in the neighborhood is that a woman was 
some time ago poisoned, and buried in St. John's 
Clerkenwell, by her brother-in-law. " 

These knockings and phenomena occurred for 
a considerable time, until the whole community 
became interested in the manifestations. While 
various theories were advanced at the time — and 
since — to explain this ghost, no definite conclu- 
sion has ever been arrived at. 

The Drummer of Tedworth is a still older and 
equally famous ghost, who flourished about a 
hundred years before the Cock Lane Ghost, and 
was investigated (and the results carefully re- 
corded) by Sir Joseph Glanvil, F.R.S., who 
wrote a book about the case : "Sadducismus Tri- 
umphatus" which was also devoted to the gen- 
eral phenomena of witchcraft. Here, also, we 
find records of unaccountable "knockings" and 
similar phenomena, which lasted for a consider- 
able time, and which have never yet been ex- 
plained. 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 235 

The ghost which invaded John Wesley's house 
stayed with them for several years, and mani- 
fested his presence in a variety of elaborate and 
ingenious ways. Those who are interested in 
this ghost and his doings should read Wesley's 
Journal; also the various discussions, pro and 
con., which have appeared in the Proceedings of 
the Society for Psychical Research, from time ta 
time. It is a most curious and suggestive rec- 
ord. 

The Devils of Loudon might also be cited as 
an interesting case of psychic phenomena; and 
here trance, automatic speech, etc., were ob- 
served — as well as the usual physical phenom- 
ena. This is perhaps one of the earliest cases 
which was closely observed, and in which skep- 
tical criticism was applied. This case will be 
found recorded in Mr. H. Addington Bruce's, 
"Historic Ghosts and Ghost Hunters/' 



236 TETJE GHOST STOEIES 



APPENDIX B 

THE PHANTOM AEMIES SEEN IN 
FKANCE 

History abounds in cases showing the appa- 
rent intrusion of spiritual help in time of trou- 
ble, and in the annals of military history, these 
accounts are not lacking. On several occasions, 
the Crusaders thought that they saw angelic 
hosts fighting for them — phantom horsemen 
charging the enemy, when their own utter de- 
struction seemed imminent. Id <TV wars be- 
tween the English and the Scotn, several such 
cases were cited, and the Napoleonic wars also 
furnished examples. But the most striking evi- 
dence of this character — because the newest — 
and supported, apparently, by a good deal of 
first-hand and sincere testimony, is that afforded 
by the Phantom Armies seen in France during 
the retreat of the British army from Mons — the 
field of Agincourt. Cut off by overwhelming 
numbers, and all but annihilated, the British 
army fought desperately, but the 80,000 were 
opposed by 300,000 Germans, backed by a ter- 



TKUE GHOST STORIES 237 

rifle fire of artillery, and were indeed in a criti- 
cal position. They were only saved, as we 
know, by the heroism of a small force of men 
— a rearguard — who were practically wiped out 
in consequence. At the most critical moment 
came what appeared to be angelic assistance. 
The tide of battle seemed to be stemmed by su- 
pernatural means. In a letter written by a sol- 
dier who actually witnessed these startling 
events, quoted by the Hon. Mrs. St. John Mild- 
may (North American Review, August, 1915), 
the following graphic account is given. Our sol- 
dier writes — 

"The men joked at the shells and found many 
funny names for them, and had bets about them, 
and greeted them with music-hall songs, as they 
screamed in this terrific cannonade. . . . The 
climax seemed to have been reached, but 'a sev- 
en-times heated heir of the enemy's onslaught 
fell upon them, rending brother from brother. 
At that very moment, they saw from their 
trenches a tremendous host moving against their 
lines. Five hundred of the thousand (who had 
been detailed to fight the rear-guard action) re- 
mained, and as far as they could see the German 
infantry was pressing on against them, column 
by column, a grey world of men — 10,000 of them, 
as it appeared afterwards. There was no hope 



238 TKUE GHOST STOKIES 

at all. Some of them shook hands. One man 
improvised a new version of the battle song Tip- 
perary, ending 'and we shan't get there!' And 
all w T ent on firing steadily. . . . The enemy 
dropped line after line, while the few machine 
guns did their best. Everyone knew it was of 
no use. The dead grey bodies lay in companies 
and batallions, but others came on and on, 
swarming and advancing from beyond and be- 
yond. 

" 'World without end, Amen/ said one of the 
British soldiers, with some irreverence, as he 
took aim and fired. Then he remembered a veg- 
etarian restaurant in London, where he had 
once or twice eaten queer dishes of cutlets made 
of lentils and nuts that pretended to be steaks 
On all the plates in this restaurant a figure of 
St. George was printed in blue with the motto, 
Adsit Anglis Sanctus Georgius (May St. George 
be a present help to England!) The soldier 
happened to know 'Latin and other useless 
things/ so now, as he fired at the grey advanc- 
ing mass, 300 yards away, he uttered the pious 
vegetarian motto. He went on firing to the end, 
till at last Bill on his right had to clout him 
cheerfully on the head to make him stop, point- 
ing out as he did so that the King's ammunition 
cost money and was not lightly to be wasted. . . . 



TEUE GHOST STOEIES 239 

For, as the Latin scholar uttered his invocation, 
he felt something between a shudder and an elec- 
tric shock pass through his body. The roar of 
the battle died down in his ears to a gentle 
murmur, and instead of it, he says, he heard a 
great voice louder than a thunder peal, crying 
'Array ! Array V His heart grew hot as a burn- 
ing coal, then it grew cold as ice within him, for 
it seemed to him a tumult of voices answered to 
the summons. He heard or seemed to hear 
thousands shouting: 

"'St. George! St. George! 

" ( Ha! Messire, Ha! Sweet Saint, 
grant us good deliverance! 

" St. George for Merrie England! 

" 'Harow! Harow! Monseigneur St. 
George, succour us, Ha! St. George! 
A low boio, and a strong how, Knight 
of Heaven, aid us. r 

"As the soldier heard these voices, he saw be- 
fore him, beyond the trench, a long line of 
shapes with a shining about them. They were 
like men wiio drew the bow, and with another 
shout their cloud of arrows flew singing through 
the air toward the German host. The other men 
in the trenches were firing all the while. They 



240 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

had no hope, but they aimed just a«s if they had 
been shooting at Bisley. 

"Suddenly one of these lifted up his voice in 
plain English. 'Gawd help us/ he bellowed to 
the man next him, 'but we're bloomin' marvels ! 
Look at those grey gentlemen! Look at them! 
They're not going down in dozens or hundreds — 
its thousands it is! Look, look! There's a 
regiment gone while I'm talking to ye!' 

" 'Shut it,' the other soldier bellowed, taking 
aim. 'What are ye talkin' about?' But he 
gulped with astonishment even as he spoke, for 
indeed the grey men w T ere falling by the thous- 
ands. The English could hear the gutteral 
scream of their revolvers as they shot, and line 
after line crashed to the earth. All the while 
the Latin-bred soldier heard the cry 'Harow, Ha- 
row ! Monseigneur ! Dear Saint ! Quick to our 
aid ! St. George help us !' 

"The singing arrows darkened the air, the 
hordes melted before them. 'More machine 
guns,' Bill yelled to Tom. 'Don't hear them,' 
Tom yelled back, 'but thank God, anyway, that 
they have got it in the neck!' 

"In fact, there were ten thousand dead Ger- 
man soldiers left before that salient of the Eng- 
lish army, and consequently — no Sedan. In 
Germany the General Staff decided that the 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 241 

English must have employed turpenite shells, as 
no wounds were discernible on the bodies of the 
dead soldiers. But the man who knew what 
nuts tasted like when they called themselves 
steak, knew also that St. George had brought his 
Agincourt Bowmen to help the English. " 

Such accounts have been confirmed by others. 
Thus, Miss Phyllis Campbell, writing in "The 
Occult Review" (October, 1915), says: 

"I tremble, now that it is safely past, to look 
back on the terrible week that brought the Al- 
lies to Vitry-le-Francois. We had not had our 
clothes off for the whole of that week, because 
no sooner had we reached home, too weary to 
undress, or to eat, and fallen on our beds, than 
the 'chug-chug' of the commandant's car would 
sound into the silence of the deserted street, and 
the horn would imperatively summon us back 
to duty — because, in addition to our duties as 
ambulancier auxiliare, we were interpreters to 
the post, now at this moment diminished to half- 
a-dozen. 

"Returning at 4.30 in the morning, we stood 
on the end of the platform, watching the train 
crawl through the blue-green mist of the forest, 
into the clearing, and draw up with the first 
wounded from Vitry-le-Francoise. It was 
packed with dead and dying and badly wounded. 



242 TRUE <iHOST STOKIES 

For a time we forgot our weariness in a race 
against time — removing the dead and dying, and 
attending to those in need. I was bandaging a 
man's shattered arm with the majeur instructing 
me, while he stitched a horrible gap in his head, 

when Madame de A , the heroic president 

of the post, came and replaced me. "There is an 
English in the fifth wagon/ she said. 'He wants 
something — I think a holy picture !' 

"The idea of an English soldier wanting a 
holy picture struck me, even in that atmosphere 
of blood and misery, as something to smile at — 
but I hurried away. 'The English' was a Lan- 
cashire Fusilier. He was propped in a corner, 
his left arm tied-up in a peasant woman's hand- 
kerchief, and his head newly bandaged. He 
should have been in a state of collapse from loss 
of blood, for his tattered uniform was soaked 
and caked in blood, and his face paper-white un- 
der the dirt of conflict. He looked at me with 
bright, courageous eyes and asked for a picture 
or a medal (he didn't care which) of St. George. 
I asked him if he was a Catholic. 'No,' he was 
Wesleyan Methodist, . . . and he wanted h 
picture or a medal of St. George, because he had 
seen him on a white horse, leading the British at 
Vitry-le-Francois, when the Allies turned. 

"There was an F.E.A. man, wounded in the 



TRUE GHOST STORIES 243 

leg, sitting beside him on the floor; he saw my 
look of amazement, and hastened in: 'It's true, 
sister/ he said. 'We all saw it. First there was 
a sort of yellow-mist like, sort of risin' before 
the Germans as they came on ihe top of the hill 
— come on like a solid wall, they did — spring- 
ing out of the earth just solid — no end to 'em! 
I just give up. Eo use fighting the whole Ger- 
man race, thinks I; it's all up with us. The 
next minute comes this funny cloud of light, and 
when it clears off, there's a tall man with yellow 
hair in golden armour, on a white horse, holding 
his sword up, and his mouth open as if he was 
saying : "Come on, boys ! I'll put the kybosh on 
the devils!" Sort of "This is my picnic" ex- 
pression. Then, before you could say "knife," 
the Germans had turned, and we were after 
them, fighting like ninety. . . . ' 

"Where was this?" I asked. But neither of 
them could tell. They had marched, fighting a 
rearguard action, from Mons, till St. George had 
appeared through the haze of light, and turned 
the enemy. They both kneiv it was St. George. 
Hadn't they seen him with a sword on every 
'quid' they'd ever seen? The Frenchies had seen 
him too — ask them; but they said it was St. 
Michael. ..." 

Much additional testimony of a like nature 



244 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

might be given — and has been collected by stu- 
dents of psychical research. If the spiritual 
world ever intervenes in matters mundane, it 
assuredly did so on this occasion. And it could 
hardly have chosen a more opportune time. 
Could the aspiring thoughts of the dead and dy- 
ing, and those still living and fighting for their 
country, have drawn "St. George" to earth, to 
aid in again redeeming his country from a for- 
eign foe? Could a simple "hallucination" have 
been so widespread and so prevalent? Or might 
there not have been some spiritual energy behind 
the visions thus seen — stimulating them, and in- 
spiring and encouraging the stricken soldiers? 
We cannot say. We only know what the sol- 
diers themselves say; and we also know the un- 
doubted effects upon the enemy. For on both 
occasions were the Germans repulsed with terri- 
ble slaughter. Perhaps the vision of St. George 
led our soldiers into closer touch and rapport 
with the consciousness of some high intelligence 
— or the veil was rent, separating the two worlds 
— as so often appears to be the case in appari- 
tions and visions of this character. 



TRUE GHOST STOEIES 245 



APPENDIX C 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Ghost Stories of an Antiquary. M. R. James* 

Wandering Ghosts. F. Marion Crawford. 

John Silence. A. Blackwood. 

Modern Ghosts. DeMaupassant, (and oth- 
ers). 

Twenty-five Ghost Stories. W. Bob Holland. 

A Book of Ghosts. Baring Gould. 

The Shape of Fear. Peattie. 

Book of Dreams and Ghosts. Andrew Lang. 

Cock Lane and Common Sense. A. Lang. 

Real Ghost Stories. W. T. Stead. 

More Ghost Stories. W. T. Stead. 

The Great Amherst Mystery. Walter Hub- 
bell. 

The Bell Witch. M. V. Ingram. 

The Alleged Haunting of B House. Miss 

X. 

Haunted Houses and Haunted Men. Hon. 
John Harris. 

Ghostly Phenomena. Elliott O'Donnell. 

Byways of Ghost Land. Elliott O'Donnell. 



246 TRUE GHOST STORIES 

Historic Ghosts and Ghost Hunters. H. A. 
Bruce. 

Posthumous Humanity : a Study of Phantoms. 
D'Assier. 

Apparitions and Thought-Transference. Frank 
Podmore. 

The New View of Ghosts. F. Podmore. 

Proceedings and Journals of the S. P. R. 

Borderland (Magazine). Ed. by W. T. Stead. 

Haunted Houses of Great Britain. Ingraham. 

The Mght Side of Nature. Catherine Crowe. 

The House and the Brain. Bulwer Lytton. 

Nightmare Tales. H. P. Blavatsky. 

Apparitions: a Narrative of Facts. B. W. 
Saville. 

Startling Ghost Stories. Anon. 

Sights and Shadows. F. G. Lee. 

Dracula. Bram Stoker. 

The Phantom of the Opera. Gaston Leroux. 

[Note. — The above list does not pretend to be 
in any way exhaustive nor are the books quoted 
in any way equal in evidential value. They are 
merely types or examples of Ghost Stories, from 
various points of view; which, if the reader is 
interested, he may read with both pleasure and 
profit] 



The Sociable Ghost 

Written down by OLIYE HARPER and MOTHER 

12mo. 235 Pages. Paper Bound. With 14 Full-Pagte 
Illustrations by Thomas Mcllvaine and A. W. Schwartz. 

77777///////////////////////A 

This is a humorous story, giving the adventures 
of a reporter who was invited by the sociable ghost 
to a grand banquet, ball, and convention under the 
ground of Old Trinity Churchyard. A true tale of the 
things he saw and did not see while he was not there. 

Gruesome in spite of its playful humor, as any tale dealing 
exclusively with skeletons is bound to be, this story in which 
a New York reporter spends an evening with the illustrious 
dead in Trinity churchyard, sets the reader to thinking as 
well as laughing. Instead of burlesquing the departed dead, 
the author intends to set up a few offenses for which mortals 
will be punished in the hereafter, and at the same time she 
protests against the removal of corpses from one cemetery to 
another to afford space for the tramp of onward civilization. 

The sociable ghost, who was formerly a society leader in the 
metropolis, takes the curious reporter into the banqueting hall 
of the dead elite, where ghosts, not sufficiently purified in soul 
to go free from the hindrance of bones and burdened with their 
mundane characteristics, dance, gormandize, simper and gossip 
as they did during life, waiting for the passports the Master 
promises to give when the taint of earthly vices and frivolities 
have been purged. Particularly amusing is the passage in 
which some sinner is compelled to teach five ladies of the "400" 
how to play poker, as well as the place where the guests are 
compelled to repeat for the edification and amusement of each 
other the terrible epitaphs that disfigure their tombstones. 

This book is for sale by all dealers everywhere, 
or it will be sent by mail, postpaid, on receipt of 
price, 50 cents. Address all orders to 

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A GENTLEMAN 

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The above books are library size, printed on excellent 
paper, handsomely and substantially bound in cloth. 

Price, postpaid, 75 cents each, unless otherwise stated. 



& 




J. S. OGILVIE PUBLISHING COflPANY 

57 Rose Street, New York 



[OGILVIE'S POPULAR COPYRIGHT LINE 



I RESURRECTION. By Count Leo Tolstoi. It depicts with 
a master hand the ocean of life rocked by storm and lulled to 
sleep and ease. In the splash of every wave is heard the story 
of human emotions, misery, disenchantment, suffering, crime, 
and life, that is true— even in art. Nekhludov, the central 
figure, is a powerful, unfathomable stroke of artistic genius. 
He is not always a hero— he is a man— hence heir to weakness 
and temptation. Passion runs wild in him. The beast, the 
flesh, triumph over the spirit. In wine, women, and corruption 
he forgets the victim of his crime, and were it not for an 
almost improbable coincidence, his soul, his conscience, would 
never awaken. But he becomes a new man; and it is the 
telling of this which gives Resurrection its power. 

THE HOUSE BY THE RIVER. 
By Florence Warden. A wonderful 
story of mystery and romance, one in 
which, to the reader's mind, every 
character in the book is guilty until 
the end is reached. Read what the 
reviewers say of it : 

" Florence Warden is the Anna Katharine 
Green of England. She apparently has the 
same marvelous capacity as Mrs. Rohlfs for 
concocting the most complicated plots and 
most mystifying mysteries. "— JV. Y. Glube. 

" The interest of the story is deep and 
intense."— £aitf Lake Tribune. 

" The author has a knack of intricate plot- 
work which will keep an intelligent reader 
at Tier books, when he would become tired 
over far better novels. For even the - wisest 
now and then relish not only a little 






W 



THE HOUSE 
?yTHE RIVER 




FLORENCE WARDEN 



nonsense, but as w*ll do they enjoy a thrill- 
ing story of mystery. And this is one— a dark, deep, awesome, compelling 
if not convincing tale."— Sacramento Bee, 

THE WORLD'S FINGER, By T. W. Hanshew. It is a 

scientific theory that the retina of the eye of a dying person 
will retain the impression, or photograph, as you might call it, 
of any object that it rests upon if seen at the instant of death. 
The World's Finger is a detective story in which this theory 
plays a prominent part. A lawyer wrote us stating that he 
never before read a book in which the chain of convicting 
evidence was so complete, but in which the suspected criminal 
\was finally found innocent. 

-r 

The above books are library size* printed on excellent 

paper, handsomely and substantially bound in cloth. 

Price, postpaid, 75 cents each, unless otherwise stated. 

J. S. OQILVIE PUBLISHING COflPANY 

57 Rose Street, New York 



i i 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: Nov. 2004 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

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Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 



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